ij/H 7> ^  '  r^ 


V 


'".^. 


CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 


-^tci'T'n' -6^  ^uu'n'&^a,  t^  ■::^,<:^Tieu-  &*■  i:r&^ 


CHARLES    STEWART 
PARNELL 


BY 

HIS   BROTHER 
JOHN   HOWARD    PARNELL 


JBOSTOK  coT.i.irat  libraIW 

CHESTNUT  tttLL,  MAB8, 


NEW  YORK 

HENRY    HOLT    AND    COMPANY 

1914 


iiidd^i 


CONTENTS 

FOREWORD    ------  vii 

BOOK  I 
EARLY   DAYS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    HOME   AND   FAMILY   -----  3 

II.    IN   THE  NURSERY       -                 -                 -  -  -  l8 

III.    CHILDHOOD                     -                 -                 -  -  -  26 

IV.    WARDS    IN    CHANCERY                -                  -  -  -  38 

V.    AT   WISHAW'S                  -                  -                  -  -  -  47 

VI.    NEARING   MANHOOD                    -                 -  -  -  54 

BOOK  II 
STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE 

I.   THE    FENIANS                -                 -                 -  -  -  67 

II.    NEARLY    MARRIED      -                 -                  -  -  73 

III.  CHARLEY    IN    AMERICA                -                  -  -  -  82 

IV.  ADVENTURES   IN   THE   COALFIELDS       -  -  -  89 
V.   THE   RAILWAY    ACCIDENT          -                  -  -  -  96 

VI.    BACK   TO   EUROPE       -                 -                 -  -  -  IIO 

VII.  Charley's  entrance  into  politics  -  -  119 

vin.  first  blood            -            -            -  -  -  ^33 

IX.  in  parliament        -            -            -  -  -  141 

X.  OBSTRUCTION                  -                  -                  -  -  -  1 49 
XI.   A   TRIUMPHAL  TOUR  -                 -                 -  -  -  I56 

XII.   LEADER   AT   LAST         -                 -                 -  -  -  165 


vi  CONTENTS 


BOOK  III 
IN  POWER 

CHAPTER  PAGB 

I.   MY   brother's   personality  -  -  -  17I 

II.   THE   RIGHT  TO   LIVE  -  -  -  -  183 

III.  IN   PRISON      ------  193 

IV.  THE   PHCENIX   PARK   MURDERS               -                 -                 -  1 99 
V.    THE   ARREARS    ACT     -----  205 

VI.   A   SUCCESSFUL   CAMPAIGN        -  -  -  -  211 

VIL    THE   PIGOTT    LETTERS  -  -  -  -  22T 


BOOK  IV 
A  LOSING  FIGHT 

I.   THE  DIVORCE   AND   AFTER     -  -  -  -  23I 

II.    THE   GOD    FROM   THE   MACHINE  -  .  -  241 

III.  Charley's  betrayal  _  -  _  -  246 

IV.  after  the  death  -----  254 

V.    A   VISION         ------  258 

APPENDICES 

A.  Charley's  superstitions  -  -  -  -  263 

B.  Charley's  influence  in  America  -  -  268 

C.  AVONDALE   industries  -  -  -  -  2yy 

D.  where  the  tribute  went  to      -  -  -  286 

E.  A    friend's    appreciation   -  -  -  -  290 

F.  the  manifesto  of  1890   -  -  -  -  294 

G.  -  -  __---  302 


A  FOREWORD 

Though  it  is  not  possible  that  anything  I  may 
write  will  add  to  the  lustre  that  circles  the  name 
of  Charles  Stewart  Parnellj  or  deepen  the  affection 
in  which  that  name  is  held  by  Irishmen  all  over 
the  world,  still,  as  a  Cork  man  and  a  devoted  and 
life-long  follower  of  the  illustrious  Tribune,  and 
as  one  who  was  honoured  with  his  acquaintance 
for  many  years,  I  would  desire  in  this  foreword  to 
pay  a  sincere,  if  humble,  tribute  to  his  memory. 
Mr.  Parnell  found  his  countrymen  in  serfdom;  he 
aroused  them  from  theii  lethargy,  he  raised  them 
up  and  made  them  determined  and  self-reliant. 
He  awakened  hope  in  a  crushed  and  despondent 
people,  he  devoted  his  life  to  their  cause,  and  he 
showed  them  the  way  to  liberty.  The  genius  of 
Parnell  revolutionized  procedure  in  the  British 
Parliament,  and  the  methods  which  his  brain 
designed  bear  the  hall-mark  of  perfect  statesman- 
ship. His  brilliance  as  a  leader  was  not  less  re- 
markable. Gifted  with  a  keen  insight  into  affairs, 
he  was  superficially  cold,  unemotional,  and  appar- 
ently detached.     He  utilized  to  the  fullest  these 

vii 


viii  A  FOREWORD 

remarkable  qualities,  but  nothing  could  conceal 
his  burning  love  of  his  country  and  of  his  country- 
men. Parnell  the  calm,  calculating  statesman 
and  politician  has  been  pictured  and  described 
by  many  writers,  but  few  have  penetrated  the 
armour  that  concealed  the  real  man.  The  in- 
scrutable, sphinx-like  Irish  gentleman,  who  was 
in  habit  and  manner  diametrically  opposed  to 
what  Britons  conceived  to  be  the  typical  Irish- 
man, mystified  his  political  opponents  and  critics. 
They  could  not  understand  Parnell,  neither  could 
they  comprehend  how  it  was  that  he,  whom  they 
regarded  as  being  essentially  un-Irish  in  his 
personality,  could  awaken  the  wildest  enthusiasm 
in  his  feUow-countrymen.  They  only  knew  that 
he  was  beloved  by  Irishmen,  that  he  lived  in  their 
hearts,  that  he  dominated  political  thought  in 
Ireland,  and  that  his  word  was  a  supreme  law  to 
its  people.  Parnell  has  been  appropriately  de- 
scribed as  "  the  Uncrowned  King "  of  Ireland, 
and  while  he  lived  that  descriptive  phrase  was 
true.  Now  that  he  is  dead,  the  Irish  people  have 
placed  a  nation's  diadem  on  his  brow,  and  as  long 
as  the  shamrock  grows  in  Irish  ground  they  will 
honour  his  name  and  his  memory. 

Parnell    the    statesman  was  known,  respected 
and  possibly  feared,  in  the   British   Parliament; 


A  FOREWORD  ix 

Parnell  the  Patriot  was  idolized  in  Ireland.  And 
if  I  may  develop  this  view  a  little  further,  I  would 
add,  with  a  full  knowledge  and  a  personal 
acquaintance  with  the  facts,  that  nowhere  in 
Ireland  was  Parnell' s  genius  more  appreciated, 
and  nowhere  was  he  held  in  greater  affection,  than 
in  the  city  of  Cork,  which  he  represented  in  Parlia- 
ment for  many  years.  In  this  work  Mr.  John 
Howard  Parnell  writes  of  his  brother  from  what 
might  be  termed  the  "  personal  point  of  view,'* 
and,  as  the  book  speaks  for  itself,  it  is  not  necessary 
to  say  more  than  that  it  will  be  welcomed  and 
warmly  appreciated  by  Irishmen  in  all  parts  of 
the  globe,  as  well  as  by  everyone  who  has  admired 
the  Titanic  political  achievements  of  one  of 
Ireland's  most  devoted  and  illustrious  sons. 
During  my  three  years  of  of&ce  as  Mayor  of  Cork, 
I  was  in  constant  and  intimate  touch  with  Mr. 
Parnell,  and  I  saw  him  and  knew  him,  if  I  may  so 
express  it,  "  behind  the  scenes."  The  more  I 
explored  the  depths  of  his  mighty  mind,  and  the 
more  I  realized  the  attributes  of  his  character, 
the  greater  my  esteem — I  might  say  my  affec- 
tion— grew  for  the  patriot  whose  every  thought 
was  for  his  country's  welfare.  Two  things  that 
impressed  themselves  on  me  were  his  intense 
interest  in  everything  that  helped  to  establish  or 


X  A  FOREWORD 

develop  Irish  industries,  and  his  absolute  detesta- 
tion of  any  British  intermeddling,  which  in  many 
instances  tended  to  hamper  such  Irish  industries 
as  already  existed.  Mr.  Parnell's  view  was  that 
British-made  laws  affecting  trade  and  commerce 
were  drafted  and  designed  mainly  to  suit  British 
conditions,  and  little  or  no  consideration  was 
given  to  the  effect  that  such  laws  might  have  upon 
Irish  industries.  He  knew  that  in  Ireland  the 
conditions  were  different,  and  he  always  insisted 
that  Irishmen  themselves  were  the  best  judges 
of  what  their  country  required.  The  Home  Rule 
principle  was  constantly  in  his  mind,  and  his 
first  thought  regarding  every  general  legislative 
measure  was,  "  How  will  it  affect  Ireland?"  An 
instance  occurred  over  twenty  years  ago  which 
illustrates  Mr.  Parnell's  extreme  interest  in  the 
conservation  of  Irish  industries.  A  millers'  strike 
was  in  progress  in  Cork,  when  I  was  called  to 
London  on  urgent  business.  Meeting  Mr.  Parnell 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  he  asked  me  to  return 
immediately,  and  to  use  every  effort  to  terminate 
the  dispute.  "  Try  and  end  it  at  once,"  he  said. 
"  We  have  very  few  Irish  mills  at  work — ^let  us 
endeavour  to  keep  what  we  have." 

The  people  of  Cork  have  always  taken  pride  in 
the  fact   that   Parnell  represented  their  city  in 


A  FOREWORD  xi 

Parliament,  and  that  he  was  enrolled  an  Honorary 
Burgess  of  their  ancient  municipality.  An  affec- 
tionate regard  for  his  name  is  still  characteristic 
of  the  people  who  live  within  earshot  of  Shandon 
Bells;  and  Cork  men,  in  common  with  their  country- 
men in  Ireland  or  in  exile,  will  always  pay  dutiful 
homage  to  the  memory  of  the  man  who  served 
his  country  so  faithfully  and  well.  While  a  stone 
stands  on  a  stone  in  the  city  that  Finn  Barr 
founded,  the  most  cherished  heritage  of  its 
citizens   will   be   the   glorious   name   of   Charles 

Stewart  Parnell. 

DANIEL  HORGAN, 

Mayor  of  Cork,  1 890-1 892. 
Cork,  1914. 


BOOK   I 

EARLY   DAYS 

"  Oh !  he  stands  beneath  the  sun,  the  glorious  Fated  One, 
Like  a  martyr  or  conqueror,  wearing 
On  his  brow  a  mighty  gloom — be  it  glory,  be  it  doom. 
The  shadow  of  a  crown  it  is  bearing." 

Lady  Wylde. 


CHARLES   STEWART  PARNELL 

CHAPTER  I 
HOME  AND  FAMILY 

The  Avondale  Tea-House. 

I  begin  the  life  of  my  brother,  Charles  Stewart 
Parnell — or,  as  I  cannot  help  calling  him,  Charley 
— in  a  small  cosy  room  in  the  old  tea-cottage  on 
the  banks  of  the  Avonmore,  near  the  Meeting  of 
the  Waters  on  my  brother's  demesne  at  Avon- 
dale. 

This  cottage  took  the  place  of  the  historical  tea- 
house, of  which  two  rooms  are  left  in  a  somewhat 
ruined  state.  The  old  tea-house  stood  on  the 
same  spot  two  hundred  years  ago,  and  was  then 
the  rendezvous  for  all  the  Wicklow  nobility  and 
gentry,  who  came  there  to  drink  tea  when  on  a 
visit  to  the  Parnell  and  Hayes  families.  I  re- 
member specially  that  Lord  and  Lady  Wicklow 
used  to  drive  round  there  to  recall  old  memories 
on  their  way  to  visit  my  mother.  My  brother 
Charley  always  called  in  there  on  his  daily  walk 
down  to  the  sawmills. 

3 


4  CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

While  the  original  tea-house  has  practically  dis- 
appeared, the  old  trees  and  shrubs  all  remain,  as 
well  as  young  trees  planted  since  by  my  brother 
during  his  ownership.  One  feature  is  the  im- 
mense old  silver  firs — the  largest  in  Ireland. 

As  I  write  this  [in  1905]  on  a  fishing  visit,  they 
stand  there,  looking  as  if  they  kept  lonely  guard 
with  their  funereal  plumes,  sorrowing,  as  it  were, 
for  the  departed  tea-drinkers  and  the  ancient 
associations  of  Avondale. 

This  cottage  is  built  on  the  banks  of  the  beauti- 
ful River  Avonmore,  about  half  a  mile  from 
Charley's  old  home  of  Avondale.  The  road  from 
Avondale  winds  in  and  out  along  a  charming 
wooded  valley,  with  the  demesne  meadows  be- 
tween the  woods  and  the  cottage,  and  is  looking 
its  best  on  this  beautiful  spring  day. 

The  young  lambs  are  gambolling  around;  the 
rooks  are  building  their  nests  in  the  fine  old 
beeches,  offsprings  of  the  former  generations  of 
rooks  who  used  to  circle  round  the  old  tea-drinkers ; 
the  wood-pigeons  are  cooing  in  the  silver  firs;  the 
pines  are  sighing  overhead;  and  through  the  trees 
I  can  hear  the  singing  of  the  waters  meandering 
along  the  river's  rocky  bed.  It  is  no  wonder  that 
I  should  feel  inspired  in  these  lovely  surroundings 
to  begin  the  writing  of  my  brother's  life,  where 
many  a  time  I  used  to  come  in  search  of  the  wary 
trout  while  he  looked  on.  Meanwhile  I  am  wait- 
ing solitary  for  the  time  to  come  for  me  to  go  out 


EARLY  DAYS  5 

and  cast  the  fly,  and  the  memories  of  old  associa- 
tions crowd  upon  me. 

Whilst  writing  here  I  seem  to  feel  my  brother's 
presence  so  near  me.  His  portrait  that  looks 
down  upon  me  from  the  wall  was  placed  there  by 
Mr.  Michael  Merna,  his  devoted  sawmill  manager, 
who  lived  here.  This  picture  was  a  newspaper 
cartoon  issued  on  the  first  anniversary  of  Charley's 
death.  It  represents  my  brother  attacked  by 
wolves,  and  asking  his  country  not  to  fling  him 
to  them  until  it  has  got  his  full  value,  showing 
how  prophetic  were  these  words ;  for  not  only  was 
he  flung  to  the  wolves,  but  his  beautiful  home  of 
Avondale  as  well. 

Little  did  Charley  think,  when  he  and  I  used  to 
ramble  here  during  our  man}/  periods  of  com- 
panionship throughout  his  varied  career,  that 
Irish  politics  and  his  endeavours  to  make  a  new 
Ireland,  and  free  her  white  slaves  from  the  land- 
owners, would  cause  such  a  change.  Little  did  he 
expect  to  see  his  home  in  the  hands  of  the  English 
Government,  under  the  Board  of  Agriculture,  and 
the  estate  worked  by  English  and  Scotch  labourers. 

An  Explanation. 

I  may  say  at  once  that  this  book  is  intended 
rather  as  a  memoir  than  a  history  of  my  late 
brother. 

The  salient  points  of  his  striking  career  have 


6  CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

often  been  recounted,  and  I  shall  pass  over  them 
very  lightly,  devoting  attention  more  to  the  causes 
which  inspired  and  directed  them. 

What  I  aim  at  towards  him  is  to  be  what 
Bourrienne  was  to  Napoleon,  rather  than  what 
Carlyle  was  to  Frederick  the  Great  —  a  humble 
follower  of  Boswell,  elucidating  character  by 
seemingly  trivial  anecdotes,  rather  than  a  didactic 
historian,  overwhelming  his  readers  with  dates 
and  facts. 

I  must,  however,  in  order  to  explain  the  sub- 
sequent events  and  the  gradual  development  of 
my  brother's  life,  touch  briefly  on  our  family — 
their  history,  characteristics,  and  personal  ap- 
pearance— and  on  Avondale,  the  charming  home 
of  our  childhood  in  Wicklow,  and  my  brother's 
seat  after  he  came  of  age. 

So  I  freely  grant  that  this  opening  chapter  may 
be  skipped  over  with  a  yawn,  as  verging  on  the 
dull.  But  I  am  afraid  that  it  is  necessary,  and 
its  dulness  inevitable,  as  it  contains  the  steel 
framework  of  facts  on  which  the  more  fragile 
edifice  of  anecdote  and  psychology  and  comment 
is  subsequently  built. 

If  a  few  inaccuracies  may  occur  from  time  to 
time,  I  trust  it  will  be  remembered  that  I  am 
looking  back  over  a  period  of  seventy  years — one 
of  the  most  eventful  in  the  history  of  our  nation — 
and  that  my  own  personal  career  (which  I  hope  to 
describe  in  a  subsequent  volume)  has  been  one 


EARLY  DAYS  7 

spent  in  many  lands,  and  includes  wild  and  even 
thrilling  adventures.  It  is  hard  now  for  me  to 
look  back  through  the  dust  of  all  that  turmoil  and 
see  clearly  with  the  recollection  of  yesterday. 


Ancestral  Influences. 

A  family  history  is  rarely  of  very  intense  in- 
terest to  those  unconnected  with  the  family  itself. 
But  the  influence  of  the  really  outstanding  char- 
acters of  certain  ancestors  upon  the  later  genera- 
tions is  not  only  interesting,  but  important. 

Our  family  is  derived  from  one  Thomas  Parnell, 
who  was  Mayor  of  Congleton  in  Cheshire  during 
the  reign  of  James  I.  He  purchased  an  estate  in 
Ireland,  which  descended  (I  skip  the  intervening 
branches  of  the  family  tree)  to  his  great-grandson, 
the  famous  Sir  John  Parnell,  whose  father  had 
been  created  a  Baronet  in  1766. 

Sir  John  threw  himself  heart  and  soul  into  Irish 
politics.  A  member  of  the  Irish  Parliament  from 
1776  onwards,  he  held  in  succession  the  offices  of 
Commissioner  of  Customs  and  Excise  and  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer.  A  sturdy  supporter  and 
defender  of  Grattan,  he  resisted  to  his  utmost 
Pitt's  scheme  of  legislative  union.  His  death  fol- 
lowed closely  on  the  merging  of  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment into  the  British  one. 

His  son,  Sir  Henry  Parnell,  created  Lord  Congle- 
ton in  1841,  warmly  opposed  the  continuance  of 


8  CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

the  Irish  Insurrection  Act,  on  the  ground  that  the 
necessity  for  such  an  extreme  measure  had  passed, 
opposed  the  Bill  for  the  suppression  of  the  Catholic 
Association,  and  took  a  prominent  part  in  obtain- 
ing Catholic  Emancipation.  He  died  in  1842, 
after  having  held  the  of&ces  of  Minister  for  War 
(under  Lord  Grey)  and  Paymaster-General  of  the 
Forces  (under  Lord  Melbourne). 

By  his  wife.  Lady  Caroline  Elizabeth  Dawson, 
daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Portarlington,  he  had 
five  children,  the  youngest  of  whom,  William,  was 
our  grandfather. 


The  Fighting  Commodore. 

Our  mother,  Delia  Stewart,  was  the  daughter  of 
the  American  Nelson,  Commodore  Charles  Stewart. 
His  countless  exploits,  his  indomitable  bravery, 
and  his  many  conflicts  with  and  victories  over  the 
English  fleet  during  the  American  War  of  Inde- 
pendence, are  such  that  to  recount  them  with  any 
justice  would  need  a  volume  to  itself. 

The  fact  that  the  blood  of  one  of  America's 
greatest  national  heroes  ran  in  my  brother  Charles's 
veins,  in  addition  to  the  sympathy  with  which  the 
Irish  cause  has  always  been  received  in  that  land 
of  freedom,  where  so  many  of  our  brothers  have 
been  driven  to  a  hospitable  and  even  glorious 
exile,  accounts  for  much  of  that  reverence  with 
which,   during   my   own   solitary   experiences   in 


EARLY  DAYS  9 

America,  I  have  found  the  name  of  Parnell  re- 
ceived even  among  the  most  lawless  and  desperate 
characters.  Those  experiences,  however,  in  which 
my  brother  did  not  participate,  are,  I  think,  more 
fittingly  reserved  for  my  account  of  my  own  life. 


Father  and  Mother. 

Our  father  travelled  in  America  and  Mexico  at 
the  age  of  twenty-one,  finally  meeting  our  mother 
in  the  latter  country. 

After  his  marriage  he  settled  at  Avondale  as  a 
quiet  country  gentleman,  keeping  fine  horses  and 
hounds,  and  hunting  with  all  the  Wicklow  gentry. 
He  was  very  fond  of  agriculture,  at  which  he  was 
recognized  as  an  expert,  and  gave  great  employ- 
ment to  the  people  in  reclaiming  land  at  Avon- 
dale.  He  was  a  prominent  magistrate  and  D.L. 
for  Wicklow.  High- tempered  when  aroused,  he 
was  of  a  quiet  disposition  as  a  rule.  He  was  fond 
of  shooting  and  preserving  the  game  all  over  the 
country,  and  had  his  shooting-lodge  at  Augha- 
vannagh,  an  old  military  barracks  in  the  mountains 
of  Wicklow,  where  he  often  went  to  shoot.  He 
was  a  very  fine  cricketer,  and  maintained  a  first- 
rate  cricket  club. 

My  mother  was  the  daughter  of  Commodore 
Charles  Stewart,  of  the  American  Navy,  to  whose 
career  I  have  already  made  a  brief  reference.  She 
was  considered  an  American  beauty,  and  moved 


10        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

in  the  best  of  American  society.  She  and  her 
mother  frequently  accompanied  her  father  on  his 
voyages.  A  charming  woman,  brilHant  in  both 
pubhc  and  social  life,  she  was  also  very  generous 
amongst  the  poor.  Among  her  other  gifts,  she 
was  a  very  keen  and  clever  politician,  Charley 
taking  after  her  in  that  respect,  her  prophecies  as 
to  our  futures  all  having  proved  correct.  The 
taste  for  art,  which  I  have  inherited  from  her,  she 
possessed  to  a  very  marked  degree,  and  was  in 
addition  extremely  well-read  and  a  brilliant  con- 
versationalist. In  appearance  she  was  of  medium 
height,  with  dark  hair  and  bluish  eyes. 

Our  father  and  mother  used  to  visit  a  great  deal 
amongst  the  Wicklow  families,  Lord  and  Lady 
Wicklow,  Lord  and  Lady  Carysfort,  and  Lord  and 
Lady  Powerscourt,  their  relatives,  being  among 
their  most  intimate  friends. 


My  Brothers  and  Sisters. 

Our  father  had  twelve  children,  whose  names 
and  the  dates  of  whose  births  and  deaths,  as  far 
as  I  remember,  are  given  on  p.  ii. 

William,  the  eldest,  died,  as  I  have  shown, 
before  my  own  birth. 

Hayes,  who  died  from  consumption,  which 
developed  after  a  fall  from  his  pony,  was  of  dark 
complexion.  He  was  a  clever  boy,  being  excep- 
tionally fond  of  mechanics  and  model  shipbuild- 


EARLY  DAYS 


11 


ing,  I  had  his  watch  after^his  death,  but  gave  it 
afterwards  to  my  sister  Anna.  He  was  very  quiet 
and  studious,  slightly  built,  and  was  called  Hayes 
after  Colonel  Hayes,  an  intimate  friend  of  our 
father. 

Henry  Tudor  I  remember  as  a  baby.     He  was 


Name. 

Date  of  Birth. 

Date  of  Death. 

William  Parnell 

1837 

1838 

Delia    Parnell;    married    Mr. 

Thompson     . . 

1838 

1881 

Hayes  Parnell 

1839 

1855 

Emily    Parnell;    married     (i) 

Captain  Dickinson,  (2)  Cap- 

tain Ricketts 

1841 

Alive 

John  Howard  Parnell ;  married 

Mrs.  Matier 

1843 

Alive 

Sophy  Parnell;  married  Alfred 

McDermott 

1845 

1875 

CHARLES  STEWART  PAR-l 

/June  27, 
\     1846 

October  6, 

NELL;  married  Mrs.  O'Sheaj 

1891 

Fanny  Parnell 

1849 

1882 

Anna  Parnell 

1852 

1911 

Theodosia    Parnell  ;    married 

Captain  Paget 

1853 

Alive 

Henry  Tudor  Parnell ;  married 

Miss  Lonby  . . 

1851 

Alive 

Also  one  child,  a  boy,  stillborn 

born  in  France,  and  had  light  auburn  hair.  I 
remember  seeing  him  in  my  father's  room  pushing 
a  chair  before  him  when  he  was  not  more  than 
two  years  old.  He  went  through  Cambridge,  but 
was  too  nervous  to  pass  his  examination  for  a 
degree.  He  is  a  barrister,  but  does  not  practise. 
Charley  comes  after  myself.      When  young  he 


12        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

was  a  wiry  little  boy,  very  bright  and  playful, 
making  fun  of  everybody  and  everything.  He 
was  fond  of  mechanics,  like  his  elder  brother, 
Hayes.  He  had  dark  brown  hair,  a  pale  com- 
plexion, very  dark  brown  and  very  piercing  eyes. 
His  figure  was  slender,  and  he  was  very  small  for 
his  age.  He  did  not  grow  until  late,  and  was 
nicknamed  "  Tom  Thumb  "  at  home. 

As  for  the  girls,  Delia  was  considered  a  great 
beauty.  She  had  dark  hair  and  complexion.  She 
was  educated  in  Paris,  and  brought  up  in  French 
society.  She  married  a  rich  American,  Mr.  Thomp- 
son, and  had  one  son,  Henry,  who  showed  a  great 
aptitude  for  music.  He  died  of  typhoid  fever, 
and  my  sister  Delia  died  from  grief  at  the  loss 
of  her  only  son. 

Emily  was  always  very  fond  of  music,  and 
played  the  piano  extremely  well.  She  was  the 
family  dancei,  and  used  to  teach  me.  She  had 
as  a  girl  a  crossbar  placed  higher  than  herself, 
which  she  used  to  clear  at  a  standing  jump.  She 
was  a  great  favourite  of  her  father's,  but  when 
she  wanted  to  marry  Captain  Dickinson  father 
objected  and  disinherited  her,  owing  to  the  rumour 
circulated  by  people,  that  she  had  run  away  with 
him,  which  was  absolutely  untrue.  She,  however, 
ultimately  married  Captain  Dickinson,  and  later 
Captain  Ricketts.  She  had  dark  hair  and  eyes, 
and  when  young  was  very  delicate.  She  was 
very  fond  of  horses  and  donkeys,  and  went  hunt- 


EARLY  DAYS  13 

ing  when  quite  young  with  Hayes  and  my 
father. 

Sophy  was  a  beautiful  bright-haired  girl.  She 
was  educated  in  Paris,  like  Delia.  She  married 
Mr.  McDermott,  and  had  several  children.  Her 
death  was  due  to  nursing  some  of  her  children 
who  were  suffering  from  scarlet  fever,  which  she 
caught  from  them. 

Fanny,  the  poetess  of  the  family,  and  our  blue- 
stocking sister,  knew  every  book  in  the  library  at 
Avondale.  She  was  a  regular  little  Irish  rebel. 
When  in  America,  she  took  up  the  Ladies'  Land 
League,  and  was  Charley's  favourite  sister  and 
chum.  She  had  dark  hair  and  hazel  eyes,  and 
was  very  witty.  Her  end,  like  that  of  many  of 
our  family,  was  a  sudden  one,  she  being  found 
dead  in  bed  at  Bordentown. 

Anna  was  Fanny's  special  chum,  and  a  fine 
painter.  She  studied  art  in  England  at  the 
academies.  She  took  up  politics  with  Charley  in 
the  Irish  cause,  and,  like  Fanny,  belonged  to  the 
Ladies'  Land  League.  Her  death  was  also  a 
tragic  one,  for  she  was  drowned  accidentally  three 
years  ago.  A  real  Irish  patriot,  she  held  up  Lord 
Spencer's  carriage  in  Dublin,  when  he  was  Lord 
Lieutenant,  and  made  him  promise  certain  con- 
cessions to  Irish  prisoners.  She  was  dark-haired, 
with  dark  eyes,  slight,  of  medium  height,  and 
delicate  in  constitution. 

Theodosia,   the  youngest,   was   a  real   society 


14        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

belle,  though  of  a  very  quiet  disposition.  Unlike 
most  of  us,  she  did  not  take  much  part  in  politics. 
She  married  Captain  Paget,  of  the  Royal  Navy, 
and  had  one  son,  and  is  living  at  present  at  Wey- 
bridge,  England. 


The  Home  of  Parnell. 

Avondale,  the  cradle  of  all  our  family,  was  given 
to  the  Parnell  family  by  the  late  owner,  Colonel 
Samuel  Hayes  (no  relative  of  the  Parnell  family). 
It  descended  from  Sir  John  Parnell  to  Charles 
Stewart  Parnell,  and  thence  to  myself  after 
Charley's  death. 

It  is  beautifully  situated  on  the  top  of  a 
high  hill,  with  the  demesne  lands  and  meadows 
sloping  gently  down  to  the  Avonmore  Valley, 
celebrated  by  Thomas  Moore  in  his  poems,  and 
is  about  two  miles  from  the  celebrated  Meet- 
ing of  the  Waters,  so  vividly  described  by 
Moore. 

The  valley  is  well  wooded,  the  River  Avon  run- 
ning down  it  a  short  distance  from  the  house. 
There  are  magnificent  views  from  Avondale  of 
the  valley  and  river  and  the  opposite  hills,  with 
the  old  copper-mines  and  works  in  the  distance. 
At  the  top  of  the  lawn  at  Avondale  is  the  cele- 
brated cricket-ground — a  large  level  area,  where 
many  a  game  was  played  against  the  crack  teams 
in  Ireland. 


EARLY  DAYS  15 

Next  to  the  cricket-ground  is  a  beautiful  little 
cosy  house  called  Casino,  which  was  generally  the 
home  of  the  managers  of  the  Avondale  estate. 
The  lawn  round  the  cricket-field  is  surrounded  by 
some  of  the  finest  beech,  elm,  and  silver-fir  trees 
to  be  found  in  Ireland. 

On  the  slope  from  the  cxicket-lawn  down 
to  the  house  is  the  place  where  Charley  and 
I  used  to  play  cricket  with  the  work -boys 
in  the  evenings.  He  could  not  have  been  older 
than  ten  at  the  time,  just  beginning  to  learn 
cricket. 

From  the  turreted  old  gate-house  at  Avondale 
runs  a  fine  winding  avenue,  lined  with  beautiful 
beech-trees,  up  to  the  house. 

The  House  of  Avondale. 

The  house  itself  is  of  old  style,  square  structure, 
not  imposing  outside.  There  is  a  granite  porch  at 
the  hall  door,  supported  by  large  granite  pillars. 
The  back  of  the  house  is  more  imposing,  as 
it  is  partly  circular,  rendered  so  by  the  bay- 
windows,  which  look  out  on  the  lovely  scenery. 
It  really  ought  to  have  been  the  front,  had  the 
architect  any  appreciation  of  the  beauties  of 
Nature. 

Taking  the  interior,  before  the  furniture  was 
removed  after  the  sale,  as  you  enter,  a  large  hall 
as  high  as  the  house,  and  taking  up  at  least  one- 


i6        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

third  of  the  whole  area,  meets  your  view.  On  the 
inside  of  the  door  is  inscribed  the  date  when  it 
was  built  by  Colonel  Hayes — 1777.  In  the  hall 
were  displayed  the  antlers  of  the  largest  Irish  elk 
in  existence,  found  near  the  house  in  one  of  the 
bogs  on  the  estate.  On  the  walls  were  sundry 
trophies  from  Canada  and  other  parts  of  the 
world.  The  Irish  colours  of  the  Volunteers  used 
to  hang  there,  but  are  there  no  longer,  having 
been  lost.  There  were  heads  of  deer  and  various 
inscriptions  on  the  walls,  the  latter  mostly  of  a 
Scriptural  nature.  A  large  billiard-table  was  also 
set  in  the  hall. 

The  library  was  a  very  fine  room,  where  log 
fires  were  always  burned.  Bookshelves  were  all 
round  the  room,  filled  with  works  from  all  parts 
of  the  world.  In  the  room  were  antique  tables, 
chairs,  and  sofas.  Scripture  scenes  and  texts 
were  on  the  walls. 

The  drawing-room  was  a  splendid  room  with  a 
large  bow-window  looking  out  on  the  country- 
side. It  was  full  of  antique  furniture,  and  very 
fine  old  oil-paintings,  all  of  a  Scriptural  character, 
by  celebrated  artists.  The  chimney-piece  was  of 
marble,  and  the  inlaid  inscriptions  were  by  the 
celebrated  Italian  painter  Bossi,  and  were  valued 
at  £1,000. 

The  parlour  was  an  imposing  room,  every 
article  of  furniture  being  of  mahogany,  with  fine 
chairs  and  tables  and  a  magnificent    sideboard. 


EARLY  DAYS  17 

Once  again  inscriptions  of  Scripture  were  on  the 
walls. 

That  concludes  my  somewhat  detached  remi- 
niscences of  our  old  home,  which  now,  since  it  has 
been  converted  into  a  School  of  Forestry  under 
the  Board  of  Agriculture,  has  much  altered  in 
appearance. 


CHAPTER  II 

IN  THE  NURSERY 

Life  in  the  Nursery. 

My  first  recollection  of  Charley  was  when  he  was 
about  two  or  three  years  old,  and  an  inmate  of 
the  nursery,  from  which  I  had  not  long  been 
promoted.  I  faintly  remember  him  toddling 
about  in  his  baby  clothes. 

When  he  grew  a  little  older  they  wanted  to  put 
him  into  petticoats,  but  he  created  such  an  uproar 
that  special  breeches,  made  of  the  thinnest 
material,  were  provided  for  him,  and  also  for 
myself.  This  was  to  make  us  hardy,  as  our 
father  wanted  to  give  each  of  us  his  own  iron 
constitution.  However,  in  the  very  cold  weather 
our  nether  garments  were  plentifully  coated  with 
frost  and  icicles. 

Charley  was  immensely  proud  of  his  victory, 
and  then  refused  to  wear  boots  once  he  was  clear 
of  the  house,  kicking  them  off  and  walking  bare- 
foot, especially  in  the  snow  I'm  afraid  I  usually 
followed  his  example. 

One  of  poor  Charley's  most  poignant  griefs  in 
his  tender  years  was  the  frequent  loss  of  his  night- 


EARLY  DAYS  19 

cap.     His  roars  were  incessant  until  it  was  found 
and  safely  fixed  on  his  head. 

Charley  once  had  a  very  narrow  escape  of 
having  his  career  cut  short  before  he  had  even 
learned  how  to  talk.  Our  mother  was  nursing 
him  one  day,  when  a  visitor  was  suddenly  an- 
nounced. She  hastily  stowed  away  the  future 
Irish  leader  in  the  drawer  of  a  large  press,  which 
she  closed  without  thinking,  and  hurried  to  the 
drawing-room.  When  the  visitor  left,  about  half 
an  hour  later,  she  found  that  she  had  clean  for- 
gotten what  she  had  done  with  Charley,  and  a 
frantic  search  was  made,  until  muffled  yells  from 
the  drawer  where  he  was  imprisoned  resulted  in 
his  release. 

Mrs.  Twopenny. 

His  nurse,  Mrs.  Twopenny  (invariably  pro- 
nounced by  us  "Tupny''),  was  a  tall,  buxom 
Englishwoman,  with  dark  hair  and  fine  hazel  eyes. 
She  was  very  fond  of  the  scenery  around  Avon- 
dale,  and  instilled  a  love  of  the  country  into  me, 
which  Charley,  however,  did  not  show  until  later 
years. 

Mrs.  Twopenny,  who  was  a  most  respectable 
woman,  quite  different  from  the  succession  of  un- 
educated nurses  who  had  charge  of  us  elder 
children,  was  very  firm  with  Charley,  but  at  the 
same  time  very  kind  to  him.  She  used  to  lead 
him  by  the  hand  on  her  favourite  rambles  through 


20        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

the  woods.  When  he  was  naughty,  which  was 
pretty  often,  she  gave  him  a  few  slaps,  but  not 
very  hard  ones,  and  he  never  was  whipped.  Even 
later,  when  he  had  indulged  in  some  special  piece 
of  mischief,  he  was  never  actually  castigated  by 
our  father,  but  only  shut  in  a  room  by  himself, 
where  he  howled  himself  to  sleep. 


Mimic  Warfare.     - 

When  we  got  a  little  older,  he,  I,  and  Fanny,  were 
always  fond  of  playing  with  tin  soldiers.  We  each 
had  a  regiment  set  up  on  the  floor,  and,  once 
ready,  opened  a  furious  fusilade  on  one  another's 
forces  with  little  pea-shooters  fashioned  in  the 
form  of  cannon.  Charley  entered  into  the  game 
with  the  greatest  spirit,  and  was  determined  to 
win  at  all  costs.  Once,  I  remember,  he  reached 
the  field  of  battle  before  us,  and  carefully  gummed 
down  his  army  to  the  floor,  much  to  the  disgust 
of  Fanny,  who  did  not  detect  the  ruse  until  her 
own  forces  were  annihilated,  while  his  stood  their 
ground. 

Fanny,  by  the  way,  was  always  Charley's 
special  chum,  and  they  often  used  to  go  up  to 
an  old  loft  under  the  roof  and  shut  themselves  in, 
even  from  me.  There  they  would  discuss  their 
pet  schemes  and  have  furious  tin-soldier  battles. 
In  these  battles,  it  is  curious  to  relate,  Fanny, 
who  even  at  that  early  period  was  a  thorough 


EARLY  DAYS  21 

little  rebel  at  heart,  used  to  consider  her  army  as 
one  composed  of  Irish  patriots  fighting  for  their 
freedom ;  while  Charley  had  to  be  content  with  an 
English  army,  doomed  by  consent  to  defeat,  but 
often,  owing  to  his  hatred  of  being  beaten,  proving 
victorious. 

I  certainly  think  that  Fanny's  impassioned 
patriotism  had  a  great  influence  on  Charley's 
convictions  in  after-life. 


Other  Games. 

**  I  spy "  and  "  Follow  my  leader "  were 
favourite  games  with  us,  and  we  used  to  play 
them  all  over  the  house,  and  out  on  to  the  lawn, 
and  through  the  shrubberies. 

Charley  was  also  an  expert  at  the  ancient,  if 
somewhat  plebeian,  game  of  marbles. 

When  Delia  came  back  from  school  in 
France,  she  brought  with  her  a  new  game,  which 
consisted  in  her  hiding  her  presents  all  over  the 
house  and  getting  us  to  search  for  them.  The 
result  was,  as  might  be  expected,  pandemonium, 
followed  frequently  by  punishment,  seeing  that 
the  presents  were  generally  hidden  in  ornaments, 
in  the  lining  of  chairs  and  sofas,  up  disused  chim- 
neys, and  behind  books. 

I  learnt  billiards  at  a  very  early  age,  and  used 
often  to  play  with  my  father.  Charley  was  always 
fond  of  sitting  on  the  edge  of  the  billiard-table 


22        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

and  throwing  the  balls  about.  He  often  attempted 
to  do  this  when  we  were  actually  playing,  and, 
when  lifted  off  the  table,  yelled  vociferously, 
indignant  as  ever  that  his  slightest  whim  should 
be  thwarted. 

Emil}^,  who  was  always  full  of  originality, 
started  a  little  mint  of  her  own  in  her  room. 
She  used  to  make  her  money  out  of  gun-wads, 
and  distribute  it  to  the  rest  of  us.  I  forget  the 
exact  nature  of  the  currency,  but  it  did  quite  well 
enough  for  our  childish  games. 

Cricket,  in  after-life  his  favourite  pastime,  as  I 
shall  relate,  had  attractions  for  Charley  even  in 
his  nursery  days,  for  he  used  to  toddle  down  to 
our  private  cricket-ground,  generally  hand  in  hand 
with  Mrs.  Twopenny,  and  watch  with  the  keenest 
interest  every  phase  of  the  game. 

As  far  as  I  can  carry  my  mind  back,  his  earliest 
form  of  recreation  was  riding  a  rocking-horse,  and 
I  can  just  remember  him,  a  very  small  creature 
indeed,  being  held  on  a  big  wooden  steed  in  the 
nursery  by  Mrs.  Twopenny. 

An  Exciting  Incident. 

Both  Charle}^  and  I  often  recalled  in  after-years 
a  thrilling  little  episode  that  occurred  when  we 
were  both  small  boys.  We  had  a  dog — a  black 
cocker  named  Rover  —  who  was  a  general 
favourite  with  us  children.     One  day  we  found 


EARLY  DAYS  23 

poor  Rover  struggling  desperately  on  the  far  side 
of  a  mill-race,  which  had  been  swollen  by  recent 
rains.  We  were,  of  course,  much  too  small  to 
jump  over  the  intervening  space  of  about  ten  feet, 
and,  even  if  we  had  got  round  by  a  long  detour, 
we  would  have  been  of  very  little  use,  and  would 
probably  only  have  tumbled  in  ourselves.  So  we 
ran  back  to  the  house,  and  on  the  way  met  our 
father.  Directly  he  gathered  what  had  happened 
he  hurried  to  the  spot,  and,  taking  without  a 
moment's  hesitation  a  flying  leap  over  the  mill- 
race,  soon  had  the  exhausted  Rover  safely  on 
land. 

During  Charley's  nursery  days  I  was  afflicted 
with  stammering,  which  I  finally  cured  myself 
of  with  some  trouble.  Charley,  with  his  natural 
spirit  of  mischief,  set  to  work  to  mimic  me,  and 
carried  the  joke  to  such  an  extent  that  he  became 
a  hopeless  stammerer  himself,  and  had  to  be  sent 
away  to  school  at  an  early  age  to  be  cured,  while 
I  stopped  on  at  Avondale. 

We  were  once  in  church,  Charley  and  I,  on  a 
very  hot  day,  and,  my  four  years'  seniority  result- 
ing in  a  considerable  difference  in  stature,  I  had 
to  keep  my  head  bent  down  very  much  in  order 
to  follow  the  place  in  the  prayer-book,  which  he 
held.  The  blood  gradually  flowed  to  my  head, 
and  I  became  very  dizzy,  until  finally  I  fell  out 
of  the  pew,  half  fainting,  and  had  to  be  taken  out 
of  church. 


24        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

His  First  Love  Affair. 

Charley's  first  love  affair  was  at  a  very  early  age 
— I  think  he  was  not  more  than  four  or  five  at  the 
time.  We  used  very  often  to  visit  the  family  of 
Mr.  Charles  Brooke  at  Castle  Howard,  where  the 
children  were  about  the  same  age  as  ourselves. 
Charley,  who  was  the  gayest  and  most  vivacious 
of  us  all  (as  also  the  most  domineering),  used 
always  to  pair  off  with  Dot  Brooke,  a  little  girl  of 
about  his  own  age.  They  romped  about  so  much 
together  that  Mrs.  Brooke  used  often  to  say: 
**  Well,  now,  when  those  two  grow  up,  I  should 
like  to  see  them  married."  Dot,  however,  when 
she  grew  up,  married  another,  and,  owing  to 
politics,  the  families  became  estranged,  so  Charley's 
first  little  romance  came  to  naught. 

We  had  many  fights,  or  rather  tussles,  for  there 
was  rarely  any  ill-feeling.  He  used  to  aim  a  blow 
at  me,  and  then  run,  catching  up  anything  he  saw 
and  flinging  it  over  his  shoulder  at  me.  I  fol- 
lowed at  full  speed,  also  catching  handfuls  of 
ornaments,  knick-knacks,  sofa-cushions,  and  even 
flower-pots,  and  hurling  them  at  him.  During 
one  of  these  pell-mell  chases,  leaving  a  trail  of 
destruction  in  their  wake,  I  remember  seizing  a 
poker  from  a  grate  and  breaking  it  over  the  back 
of  a  sofa,  with  no  intention  of  hurting  him,  but 
just  in  order  to  give  him  a  thorough  good  fright, 
which  it  did  ! 


EARLY  DAYS  25 

The  Germ  of  Character. 

As  far  as  I  can  picture  him  after  this  long  gap 
of  eventful  years,  Charley  in  his  nursery  days  was 
a  child  of  charming  appearance,  with  curly  brown 
hair  and  piercing  dark  eyes.  In  temper,  however, 
he  was  headstrong  and  self-willed,  often  to  the 
point  of  rudeness,  while  at  times  he  showed  a 
curious  mixture  of  jealousy  and  suspicion,  which 
developed  strongly  in  later  years.  His  love  of 
mischief  was  unbounded,  but  underlying  every 
action  was  the  rooted  desire  to  have  his  own  way 
at  any  cost. 

His  jealousy  cropped  out  in  many  ways,  but 
the  one  I  remember  most  vividly  was  when  we 
used  to  go 'out  with  the  guns  and  act  as  retrievers. 
Charley  was  bent  on  bringing  home  the  largest 
number  of  dead  birds,  and  if  by  luck  or  quickness 
I  happened  to  beat  him  in  this  respect,  he  used 
to  fly  into  a  violent  passion. 

Still,  in  the  days  of  his  childhood,  as  throughout 
life,  he  and  I  were  the  best  of  friends,  and  I  think 
that  I  was  one  of  the  ver}/  few  who  thoroughly 
understood  the  complexities  of  his  strange  and 
often  baffling  character. 


CHAPTER  III 

CHILDHOOD 

Born   to  Rule. 

Charley,  having  been  petted  from  his  babyhood, 
became  unmanageable,  and  even  at  the  early  age 
of  six  evinced  the  desire  to  rule  the  household. 
His  special  delight  seemed  to  be  to  get  the  upper 
hand  of  me,  in  which  he  generally  succeeded.  So 
strong  was  this  characteristic  in  him  that  his  old 
nurse,  Mrs.  Twopenny,  often  said:  "  Master 
Charley  is  born  to  rule."  Prophetic  words,  I 
think,  for  was  not  my  brother  in  after-years  a 
great  ruler,  and  by  his  wonderful  personality  and 
single-hearted  devotion  to  the  great  cause  (the 
bettering  of  the  dear  country  that  we  both  so 
much  loved)  did  he  not  keep  united  Ireland  at 
his  feet,  and  even  to-day,  in  spite  of  all  the  dark 
clouds  that  have  passed  over  him,  is  not  his 
memory  cherished  as  much  as  ever  throughout 
Ireland  ? 

Little  in  those  days  did  our  mother  dream  of 
the  great  triumphs  and  bitter  sorrows  that  were 
to  come  to  the  petted  child  of  the  house.  Still, 
owing    to   his    disposition,    after    much    anxious 

26 


EARLY  DAYS  27 

thought,  it  was  decided  that  for  the  boy's  good 
he  had  better  be  sent  to  school.  So  our  mother 
took  him  over  to  Yeovil,  where  his  school-days 
commenced  at  the  early  age  of  six. 


A  Wolf  in  the  Fold. 

It  was  a  girls'  school,  and  only  as  a  great  com- 
pliment was  Charley  admitted.  He  soon  en- 
deared himself  to  the  lady  principal,  and  was 
always  happy  in  her  company.  He  went  there 
with  great  ideas  of  having  his  own  way,  seeing 
that  he  had  only  mere  girls  to  deal  with.  He  was 
thoroughly  defeated,  however,  by  feminine 
strategy,  for,  as  he  complained  to  me  afterwards, 
they  all  made  love  to  him  and  bothered  him  out 
of  his  life.  In  any  case,  he  resented  being  sent 
to  a  girls'  school,  on  the  ground  that  it  was  not 
manly.  He  always  had  a  wish  to  be  transferred 
to  my  own  school,  but  on  account  of  my  stam- 
mering it  was  thought  advisable  to  keep  us 
separate,  for,  as  I  have  said,  owing  to  his  mimicry, 
he  had  begun  to  contract  the  habit  himself. 

When  he  removed  to  Avondale  on  his  first 
vacation,  the  greatest  improvement  was  noticeable 
in  him.  He  seemed  to  have  lost  his  old  habit  of 
domineering  over  the  family,  especially  over  his 
sisters.  During  his  second  term  at  school  he  fell  ill 
with  typhoid  fever,  and  was  nursed  through  it  very 
devotedly  by  the  principal  herself.    On  his  recovery 


28        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

his  head  seemed  to  be  peculiarly  affected,  and  our 
parents  placed  him  under  Dr.  Forbes  Winslow 
for  a  time. 

Home  Tuition. 

He  did  not  return  to  this  school  afterwards, 
though,  in  spite  of  his  having  no  special  love  for 
his  books,  his  reports  were  always  good,  even  the 
good  conduct  ones. 

After  leaving  school  he  was  taught  by  our 
sisters'  governess.  He  was  then  eight  years  old, 
and  more  strongly  than  ever  resented  being  taught 
by  a  woman,  and  so  constantly  did  he  protest  that 
our  parents  judged  it  wiser  to  get  him  a  tutor. 
From  this  time  forward  he  seemed  to  take  a 
greater  interest  in  his  lessons,  but  in  spite  of  this 
he  was  by  no  means  an  easy  pupil  to  teach.  His 
ambition  (marked  even  in  those  days)  was  never 
satisfied,  and  he  always  wanted  to  be  with  bigger 
boys.  Consequently  the  arguments  between  tutor 
and  pupil  were  many  and  fierce,  and  in  the  long- 
run,  if  the  truth  be  told,  it  was  the  boy  who 
generally  proved  the  victor.  Nor  was  the  effort 
to  give  him  religious  instruction  attended  with  any 
better  success.  When  he  was  not  in  the  mood 
to  listen  he  turned  everything  into  ridicule,  and 
sent  his  instructor  away  hopelessly  saddened. 

This  high-spirited  boy  gave  his  confidence  to 
very  few,  but,  once  given,  it  was  deep  and  true 
and  lasting.     As  he  grew  in  later  years,  he  rapidly 


EARLY  DAYS  29 

became  more  and  more  reserved.  He  had  all  the 
healthy  boy's  love  of  games,  especially  cricket, 
which  he  already  played  well  in  those  early  years. 
Even  then  he  loved  to  lead  in  games,  as  he  did 
subsequently  in  politics. 

However,  it  was  soon  thought  best  that  he 
should  return  to  school,  and  eventually  he  was 
sent  to  Kirk  Langley  in  Derbyshire.  Here,  so 
far  as  lessons  went,  he  was  pretty  much  a  law  unto 
himself.  Under-masters  he  ignored  as  far  as 
possible,  but  always  obeyed  without  hesitation 
the  Head.  This  spirit  followed  him  throughout 
life,  as  will  be  seen. 

While  Charley  was  at  Kirk  Langley,  I  was  sent 
to  M.  Marderon  in  Paris  to  see  if  he  could  cure 
me  of  stammering.  This  purpose  was  effected 
after  some  considerable  trouble,  and,  I  fear,  at 
the  expense  of  my  education.  So  all  I  know  with 
regard  to  my  brother's  experiences  at  Kirk 
Langley  is  what  I  recollect  of  his  having  told  me 
when  we  came  together  again.  He  certainly  said 
that  it  was  at  Kirk  Langley  that  he  learned  all  his 
boyish  games,  and  he  always  referred  to  it  as  a 
bright  spot  in  his  memory,  owing  to  all  the  fun 
he  had  there. 

Back  at  Avondale. 

After  leaving  Kirk  Langley,  he  returned  home 
to  Avondale,  where  he  spent  four  happy  years, 
until  the  death  of  our  father.     He  was  about  ten 


30        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

yccirs  of  age  at  that  time,  so  that  he  and  I  were 
more  of  real  companions,  although  his  nurse,  Mrs. 
Twopenny,  still  used  to  take  him  for  walks. 

I  remember  one  day  I  went  with  them  to  the 
Meeting  of  the  Waters,  taking  a  pet  dog  of  ours 
with  us.  In  those  days  he  was  full  of  life  and  fun, 
delighting  in  all  sorts  of  mischievous  pranks,  and 
nearing  home  we  missed  the  dog.  For  hours  we 
searched  the  woods,  but  never  found  any  trace  of 
our  missing  pet,  who  must  have  fallen  down  one 
of  the  mining  shafts.  Charley  and  I  were  terribly 
upset  over  his  loss,  and  it  was  only  the  motherly 
sympathy  of  Mrs.  Twopenny  that  succeeded  in 
comforting  him. 

We  had  many  a  good  fight  in  those  days,  but 
were  always  good  friends  a  few  moments  after- 
wards. I  used  to  tell  him  that  he  was  jealous  of 
me,  but  that  he  would  never  allow. 

A  favourite  game  with  us,  as  in  earlier  childhood, 
was  '*  Follow  my  leader,"  and  we  used  to  scramble 
over  the  ditches  and  through  the  hedges  and  plan- 
tations madly  following  the  leader,  who  was  always 
our  sister  Emily.  Once  Charley  knocked  me  off 
the  top  of  a  ditch  into  the  gripe  (bottom)  of  it. 
He  had  done  it  purely  in  fun,  and  immediately 
he  saw  what  had  happened,  jumped  in  himself  to 
keep  me  from  sinking  in  the  mud  and  help  me  out. 

Donkey  races  were  another  great  sport  with  us, 
and  it  was  no  uncommon  sight  to  see  three  donkeys 
on  the  lawn  of  Avondale,  being  raced  at  top  speed 


EARLY  DAYS  31 

by  Emily,  Charley,  and  myself,  Emily,  somehow, 
always  winning.  However,  as  she  was  our  sister, 
Charley  did  not  mind  so  much  being  beaten  by  her 
as  by  one  of  his  own  sex. 

When  I  came  home  for  my  holidays,  Charley 
and  I  used  to  go  out  with  our  father  when  he  went 
shooting  woodcock,  and  we  boys  took  the  grey- 
hounds to  the  end  of  the  wood,  watching  for  hares 
to  come  out,  when  we  loosed  the  greyhounds  after 
them. 

Our  Prowess  at  Cricket. 

At  that  time  Charley  and  I  used  assiduously  to 
practise  cricket  with  our  father.  I,  being  the 
elder  and  bigger  boy,  was  able  to  bowl  to  our 
father,  while  Charley  kept  wicket.  Under  our 
father's  teaching  we  soon  learnt  to  play  a  good 
game,  and  at  the  matches  with  other  teams 
Charley  was  invariably  chosen  to  replace  any 
player  who  did  not  turn  up.  I  sometimes  helped 
to  fill  a  gap,  but  Charley  was  the  better  cricketer, 
and  also  the  more  popular.  I  remember  many  a 
jolly  match  that  we  boys  had  against  the  Bally- 
arthur  boys'  team,  which  were  generally  held  on 
the  same  day  as  our  father's  matches  for  grown- 
ups. We  always  drove  to  the  matches  in  donkey 
traps,  and,  when  victorious,  kicked  up  no  end  of 
a  hullabaloo  on  the  way  home. 

Even  at  that  time,  during  the  cricket  matches, 
I  used  to  notice  Charley's  extreme  nervousness. 


32        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

His  fingers  twitched  anxiously,  even  while  he  was 
watching  the  match,  and  I  know  that  in  after- 
days  he  was  just  as  nervous,  though  perhaps  he 
did  not  show  it  to  outsiders,  in  the  greater  game 
played  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

We  used  to  take  donkey  drives  to  Aughrim  to 
fish  and  dig  for  gold  in  the  river,  an  occupation 
which  we  often  recalled  in  after-days.  Charley 
was  fond  of  collecting  eggs,  and  used  to  climb  the 
trees — as  Mrs.  Twopenny  used  to  say,  "  like  a 
regular  little  monkey  " — to  rob  the  nests.  One 
day  he  had  the  floor  of  Miss  Zouche's  room  (our 
relative  and  housekeeper)  spread  out  with  his 
whole  collection  of  eggs.  One  of  the  clumsy 
maid-servants  happened  to  come  in,  and,  like  a 
bull  in  a  china  shop,  spread  destruction  through 
the  collection.  Charley  flew  into  a  violent  passion, 
and  threatened  to  smash  her  head,  so  much  so 
that  she  ran  away  and  hid  in  the  servants'  quarters 
for  some  time.  The  remnants  of  this  collection 
he  kept  until  we  left  Avondale  for  Temple  Street, 
Dublin,  and  the  gold  found  in  the  river  he 
treasured,  I  believe,  until  the  end  of  his  life. 

Charley  and  I  used  to  drive  over  with  our  father 
to  Aughavanagh,  where  he  used  to  go  shooting, 
supervising  his  tenants,  and  looking  after  his  turf 
bogs.  One  day,  when  I  was  fishing  in  the  river 
at  Aughavannagh  (or  rather,  to  be  candid,  making 
one  of  my  earliest  attempts  at  fly  fishing),  I  asked 
Charley  to  help  me  to  tie  on  the  flies,  and  he  came 


Early  days  33 

over  and  showed  me  most  skilfully.  How  he 
had  managed  to  learn  the  art  I  cannot  make  out 
to  this  day;  however,  I  have  been  tying  them  as 
he  showed  me  ever  since.  The  curious  fact  is 
that  Charley  never  fished  himself. 


Commerce,  Building,  and  Pyrotechnics. 

The  garden  at  Avondale  was  a  very  fine  one, 
and  Kavanagh,  the  old  gardener,  took  a  great 
pride  in  it,  and  to  prevent  Charley  and  myself 
from  stealing  the  fruit  and  trampling  on  the  plants 
he  kept  the  door  locked ;  but  we  used  to  climb  on 
top  of  the  very  high  wall  and  lie  flat  there,  like 
prisoners  escaping  from  a  fortress,  waiting  until 
he  had  gone  home.  Charley  and  I  had  a  plot  of 
ground  given  to  us  on  which  we  planted  potatoes, 
which  we  sold  to  an  old  woman  in  the  town,  and 
so  earned  pocket-money. 

We  were  very  busy  at  this  time  constructing 
a  big  pond  at  Avondale,  near  the  gate  lodge,  which 
may  still  be  seen  there.  We  used  to  be  up  to  our 
knees  in  mud  while  making  this  pond,  and  would 
return  home  in  a  horribly  dirty  state,  thus  earning 
many  a  scolding  from  our  mother.  When  the 
pond  was  completed  we  built  a  flat-bottomed  boat 
out  of  canvas  and  wood,  and  when  the  boat  was 
finished  we  insisted  upon  the  work-boys  of  the 
estate  making  the  trial  trip  in  it,  with  the  result 
that  the  boat  promptly  turned  over,  and  the  boys 

3 


34        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

had  to  be  dragged  out  of  the  water.  I  am  afraid 
our  ambition  to  use  our  pond  as  a  rowing-pool  was 
never  accomphshed. 

There  is  an  old  fort  at  Avondale  where  we  used 
to  go  and  drop  molten  lead  down  through  a  sieve 
in  order  to  make  shot.  We  built  up  the  old  walls, 
and  our  workmanship  stands  as  an  enduring 
monument  to  this  day. 

The  Rev.  Henry  Galbraith,  then  Rector  of 
Rathdrum,  was  engaged  to  teach  us  Scripture. 
Charley  hated  this,  and  whenever  he  got  a  chance 
ran  off  and  hid  in  the  shrubberies  or  in  the  old  ivy 
which  is  still  around  the  house. 

One  day  Charley  conceived  the  idea  that  a  fire- 
work exhibition  would  be  a  splendid  means  of 
amusing  ourselves  and  the  tenants  on  the  estate, 
so  we  set  about  making,  first  the  powder,  and  then 
the  rockets,  and  then  collected  all  the  workmen. 
It  was  a  grand  sight,  and  no  one  was  blown  up, 
which  was  a  wonder.  But  when  our  parents  heard  of 
this  they  put  a  perpetual  veto  on  firework  displays. 

The  year  before  our  father  died,  our  sister 
Fanny  got  scarlet  fever,  and  the  epidemic  spread 
to  the  other  members  of  our  family,  Sophy  and 
myself  only  escaping.  Charley  was  the  last  to 
take  it,  and  Mrs.  Twopenny  took  charge  of  him, 
and  could  not  be  induced  to  leave  his  bedside  until 
he  was  well  on  the  road  back  to  health.  I  missed 
my  brother  very  much  in  those  days  of  infection, 
for  Sophy  and  I  were  quarantined  at  Casino,  the 


EARLY  DAYS  35 

dower-house,  in  charge  of  Miss  Zouche.  Although 
I  had  Sophy's  company  and  was  very  much 
attached  to  her,  that  did  not  make  up  for  the  loss 
of  Charley's  vivacity  and  ever-charming  manner. 

Our  instructor  at  that  time  was  Mr.  William 
Clarke,  son  of  Dr.  Clarke  of  Rathdrum,  and 
Charley,  as  usual,  did  not  get  on  very  well  with  him, 
and  was  in  the  habit  of  making  awful  faces  at  him 
behind  his  back,  so  as  to  make  me  laugh,  which  I 
did,  getting  into  severe  disgrace  with  Mr.  Clarke. 

At  this  time  we  took  up  hockey  and  hand-ball, 
which  we  played  at  dinner-time  with  the  work- 
boys  on  the  estate.  Charley  would  never  take 
the  same  side  as  myself,  but  always  tossed  up  for 
choice  of  sides.  When  we  were  playing  hockey, 
I  had  to  keep  a  sharp  lookout  for  my  shins,  because 
Charley  always  tried  to  go  for  me. 

The  Haunted  Cottage  in  the  Woods. 

There  was  a  little  lonely  cottage  surrounded  by 
dark  woods  some  distance  from  Avondale,  which 
was  said  to  be  haunted  by  the  ghost  of  a  former 
tenant.  Mysterious  voices,  blood-curdling  appari- 
tions, and  the  clanking  of  chains,  were  believed  to 
guard  its  sanctity,  especially  at  the  dread  hour  of 
midnight.  We  children  made  a  bet  with  our 
sister  Emily,  that  she  dared  not  go  there  by  her- 
self at  midnight  prompt.  She  accepted,  and  set 
out  boldly,  but  when  she  came  back  she  had  seen 


36         CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

and  heard  nothing  out  of  the  ordinary.  How- 
ever, we  cheered  her  for  her  pluck.  Charley, 
young  as  he  was,  could  not  bear  to  be  outdone, 
especially  by  a  girl.  So  he  set  out  the  next  night, 
but  returned  very  much  disappointed  at  having 
obtained  no  better  result. 

When  we  were  at  Casino  a  few  years  later,  I 
was  asked  to  play  chess  with  the  agent  of  Avondale, 
Mr.  Charles  West,  who  lived  at  Mount  Avon,  near 
the  Meeting  of  the  Waters.  I  had  never  imitated 
Emily  and  Charley  in  their  expeditions  to  the 
haunted  cottage,  so  when  I  found  that  I  had  to 
pass  by  the  cottage  on  my  way  home,  just  about 
midnight,  I  felt  distinctly  nervous.  When  I  got 
to  the  most  lonely  part  of  the  road,  just  by  the 
cottage,  I  heard  distinctly  the  rattling  of  chains 
behind  the  hedge.  As  I  quickened  my  pace,  the 
rattling  still  followed  me  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  hedge.  I  expected  every  moment  to  be  con- 
fronted by  some  horrible  apparition,  and  when  I 
came  to  a  large  gap  in  the  hedge  my  legs  refused 
to  act.  As  I  stood  there,  waiting  in  horror  for 
what  should  appear,  the  real  explanation  offered 
itself.  It  was  a  donkey  that  had  broken  from 
its  moorings,  and,  desirous  of  company,  had 
followed  the  sound  of  my  footsteps  along  his  own 
side  of  the  hedge.  I  believe  the  whole  ghost  story 
had  been  started  by  body-snatchers  in  order  to 
cover  their  midnight  depredations  from  a  neigh- 
bouring churchyard. 


EARLY  DAYS  37 

The  Birth  of  a  Romance. 

During  our  father's  lifetime  there  Hved  at 
Kingston  (a  beautiful  mansion  near  Avondale 
belonging  to  our  father)  a  Mr.  Dickinson  and  his 
family.  Our  father  did  not  like  them,  because 
their  sons  had  the  reputation  of  being  wild,  and 
were  inclined  to  make  love  to  our  sisters,  especially 
to  Emily,  who  was  a  very  attractive  girl.  At 
last  they  were  forbidden  to  come  to  Avondale. 
However,  our  family,  with  the  exception  of  our 
father,  made  arrangements  some  time  later  with 
the  Dickinsons  to  give  a  performance  of  "  She 
Stoops  to  Conquer."  Emily  was  the  heroine  of 
the  play,  and  young  Dickinson  (afterwards  her 
husband)  the  hero,  while  Charley  was  the  page 
and  I  the  butler.  The  play  proved  a  great  success, 
the  love  scenes  being  particularly  realistic,  though 
our  father  refused  to  come  to  it,  and  there  is  little 
doubt  that  it  influenced  his  attitude  towards 
Emily  in  later  years. 


CHAPTER  IV 

WARDS  IN  CHANCERY 

A  Great  Bereavement. 

Charley  was  at  this  time  (1859)  about  thirteen, 
and  living  at  Avondale  with  our  father,  while  I 
was  at  school  in  Paris  with  M.  Roderon,  learning 
French,  drawing,  and  a  little  painting.  My  sisters 
were  also  in  school  at  Paris.  Our  uncle,  Charles 
Stewart,  of  Ironside,  Bordentown,  U.S.A.,  the  son 
of  Commodore  Charles  Stewart,  our  mother's 
father,  was  living  in  51,  Champs  ^filysees,  with  his 
mother,  Mrs.  Stewart.  Our  married  sister,  Mrs. 
Thompson,  was  also  in  Paris,  living  in  the 
Faubourg  St.  Germain,  We  were  all  very  happy, 
when  a  telegram  arrived  to  say  that  our  father  had 
died  suddenly  at  the  Shelbourne  Hotel,  Dublin. 

He  was  always  an  enthusiastic  cricketer,  and  had 
gone  up  to  Dublin  to  play  in  a  big  match  between 
the  Leinster  and  the  Phoenix  teams,  although 
for  some  time  he  had  been  under  the  doctor's 
care,  suffering  from  rheumatism  of  the  stomach, 
and  had  been  warned  by  Sir  Frederick  Marsh  not 
to  indulge  in  violent  exercise.  But  he  had  a  de- 
termined will,  and,  like  Charley,  when  he  had 
-  made  up  his  mind  to  a  thing,  carried  it  out  at  all 

38 


EARLY  DAYS  39 

cost.  The  result  was  that,  although  in  a  high  fever, 
he  insisted  on  playing  in  the  match.  He  felt  worse 
on  his  return  to  the  hotel,  and  sent  for  a  doctor ; 
but  it  was  too  late,  and  he  died  next  day.  His  death 
came  as  a  thunderbolt  to  us  all,  as  he  was  always 
regarded  as  the  healthiest  of  the  whole  family. 

He  was  buried  quietly  at  Mount  Jerome,  my 
brother  Charley  being  the  only  member  of  the 
family  to  see  him  laid  at  rest,  as  all  the  others 
were  abroad.  After  the  funeral,  my  mother,  my 
sisters,  and  myself,  returned  to  Dublin,  where  we 
stopped  in  lodgings  near  Gardiner  Street. 

It  was  here  that  our  father's  will  was  read. 
Avondale  was  left  to  Charley;  the  Armagh  estate 
(Collure)  to  myself;  and  the  Carlow  property  to 
Henry.  I  well  remember  Charley  standing  by 
our  mother's  bed  discussing  our  father's  will,  and 
saying,  "  I  suppose  John  has  got  Avondale,"  and 
when  mother  told  him  it  was  his,  he  was  greatly 
surprised  and  said  he  never  expected  it.* 


Wards  in  Chancery. 

After  this  our  mother  took  steps  to  have  us  all 
made  wards  in  Chancery,  after  consulting  the 
guardians,    Sir   Ralph    Howard,    Bart.,    and   Mr. 

*  The  reason  why,  although  I  was  the  eldest  son,  Avondale 
was  left  to  Charley  was  one  which  neither  of  us  knew  at  this 
time.  I  explain  it,  however,  in  a  subsequent  chapter.  See 
Book  II.,  Chapter  VI. 


40        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

Johnson.  Sir  Ralph  Howard  was  annoyed  at 
being  joint  guardian  with  Mr.  Johnson,  who  was 
a  Scotch  agricultural  expert,  and  an  old  friend  of 
our  father's. 

Once  we  were  made  wards  in  Chancery,  Mr. 
McDermott  (our  father's  solicitor),  who  managed 
our  affairs  under  the  direction  of  the  Court  of 
Chancery,  arranged  to  have  us  placed  in  our 
mother's  charge,  and  we  all  went  down  to  Avon- 
dale.  It  was  a  sad  home-coming  for  the  young 
heir,  my  brother  Charley.  Mr.  McDermott  came 
down  to  take  charge  of  father's  affairs  and  to  go 
through  the  papers.  He  found  everything  in  a 
very  confused  state,  and  his  first  act  was  to  pay 
off  all  the  workmen  not  actually  required ;  while, 
by  order  of  the  Court,  the  live-stock  and  farming 
implements  were  sold  by  auction.  Sufficient 
horses  for  the  use  of  the  family  were  kept,  and  the 
rest  sold.  Mr.  West,  of  Mount  Avon,  was  ap- 
pointed agent.  The  servants  were  kept  on,  and 
one  of  them,  indeed — a  faithful  old  retainer 
named  Martin  Walsh — would  have  refused  to 
leave  us  under  any  circumstances.  Miss  Zouche, 
a  devoted  relative,  who  had  been  acting  as  house- 
keeper, remained  at  Avondale  for  a  year  to  take 
charge  of  the  house  while  our  affairs  were  being 
put  in  order. 

We  then  moved  to  Dalkey,  about  eight  miles 
from  Dublin,  along  the  sea-coast,  the  Court  de- 
ciding on  a  house  named  Khyber  Pass  as  being 


EARLY  DAYS  41 

a  suitable  residence  for  us.  This  house  was  situ- 
ated on  a  very  high  hill,  overlooking  the  sea  and 
the  railway,  and  I  remember  clearly  the  beautiful 
view  we  had  of  the  sea  in  the  distance. 

Charley  was  now  more  of  a  companion  for  me, 
and  he  and  I  spent  most  of  our  time  together. 
My  sisters  had  a  governess,  and  Charley  and  I 
a  tutor.  When  our  steadies  were  over,  he  and  I 
used  to  go  out  together. 

A  Narrow  Escape. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  we  both  learnt  to  swim, 
and  we  used  to  go  down  to  the  gentlemen's 
bathing-place  on  the  West  Pier  at  Kingstown. 
We  used  to  have  a  belt  on  us  and  a  rope  tied  to 
it  when  we  started  to  learn,  and  we  then  ran  down 
a  plank  and  jumped  into  deep  water.  Once  the 
rope  attached  to  Charley's  belt  broke,  and  he  was 
struggling  desperately  for  some  time  before  the 
bathing-master  could  reach  him  and  bring  him 
to  safety.  There  is  little  doubt  that  a  moment 
or  two's  delay  would  have  resulted  in  his  being 
drowned.  We  soon  became  good  swimmers,  and 
used  to  bathe  with  Mr.  McDermott  off  the  rocks 
at  Dalkey.  I  remember  catching  plenty  of  fish 
off  those  rocks,  too.  Mr.  McDermott,  I  may  men- 
tion, was  at  this  time  paying  attention  to  our 
sister  Sophy,  who  afterwards  became  his  wife,  so 
that  he  was  a  constant  visitor  at  our  house. 


42         CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

Charley  and  I  were  very  fond  of  boating,  and 
spent  as  much  time  as  we  possibly  could  on  the 
water,  having  many  a  rough  row  against  the  tide 
and  currents  round  Dalkey  Island.  We  used  to 
catch  off  the  Mugglins  Rocks  quantities  of 
flounders  and  plaice  on  our  trips,  and  bring  them 
home  to  be  cooked.  Bullock  Harbour  was 
another  favomite  resort  of  ours,  and  we  used  also 
frequently  to  row  to  Kingstown  and  back  from 
Dalkey,  though  we  found  the  currents  very  swift 
close  to  land — a  fact  which,  however,  made  us 
enj  oy  the  outing  all  the  more. 

From  the  windows  of  Khyber  Pass  Charley  shot 
many  a  rabbit,  and  we  used  often  to  go  out  ferreting 
at  Dalkey,  taking  with  us  the  porter  at  the  railway- 
station. 

Treasure  Trove. 

On  one  of  these  expeditions  I  discovered  a  vein 
of  lead  in  the  rocks  on  the  railway  cutting,  not 
far  from  the  tunnel,  and  Charley  and  I  spent  a 
lot  of  time  chipping  it  out.  Probably  no  one 
knows  now  of  its  existence. 

A  favourite  walk  of  ours  was  from  Dalkey  to 
Bullock  Harbour,  and  then  on  to  Kingstown. 
We  used  to  argue  about  the  round  towers  that 
stood  between  Dalkey  and  Kingstown,  and  marvel 
at  them  as  being  a  useless  protection.  I  re- 
member the  whole-hearted  admiration  with  which 
we  always  gazed  at  the  ivy-clad  ruins  of  Bullock 


EARLY  DAYS  43 

Castle.  This  old  ruin  has  now  been  restored,  and 
is  the  residence  of  my  valued  friend,  Mr.  Quan- 
Smith.  This  walk  by  the  sea  was,  I  think,  our 
favourite  of  all.  We  also  delighted  in  taking 
trips  on  the  old  atmospheric  railway  and  the  tram- 
track  from  Dalkey  quarries,  where  they  excavated 
the  stone  for  Kingstown  Pier. 

We  remained  a  year  at  Khyber  Pass,  and 
then  moved  to  Kingstown,  taking  The  O'Conor 
Don's  house  near  Clarinda  Park.  This  house  was 
beautifully  situated  in  a  large  wooded  park  full 
of  fine  elm,  beech,  and  ash  trees.  There  was  also 
a  large  fruit  and  vegetable  garden,  protected  by 
a  high  wall,  where  in  summer  and  autumn  Charley 
spent  a  great  deal  of  his  time,  much  to  the  annoy- 
ance of  the  gardener,  who  wished  to  keep  the  fruit 
for  the  table.  I  was  a  loyal  supporter  of  Charley's 
in  this  respect,  for  we  both  loved  fruit. 

Our  grandmother,  Mrs.  Stewart,  came  over  from 
Paris  to  spend  a  few  months  with  our  mother. 
This  was  during  the  great  American  Civil  War, 
and  grandmother  fretted  much  over  this  unnatural 
conflict  between  brother  and  brother.  Charley 
was  very  fond  of  his  grandmother,  and,  before 
going  out  anywhere,  always  went  to  say  good- 
bye to  her.  One  day  in  August  he  went,  as  usual, 
to  see  her  before  going  boating,  and  she  gave  him 
some  pocket-money.  She  was  resting  in  mother's 
arm-chair  after  lunch,  and  apparently  expired 
just  after  Charley  had  seen  her,  for  Emily,  coming 


44        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

in  a  little  later,  found  her  dead  in  the  chair.  It 
was  a  terrible  shock  to  our  mother,  as  she  was 
devoted  to  Mrs.  Stewart,  who  to  the  last  was  a 
fine,  handsome,  kindly  old  lady,  and  had  en- 
deared herself  to  the  whole  household.  Charley, 
on  his  return  from  his  boating  expedition,  was 
terribly  upset  to  hear  of  her  death.  He  and  I, 
who  were  both  very  keen  on  science,  dashed  off 
to  a  doctor  to  fetch  a  galvanic  battery,  hoping 
to  revive  her,  as  we  could  not  believe  that  she 
was  really  dead;  but  the  doctor  whom  we  brought 
back  with  us  pronounced  life  to  be  quite  extinct. 
The  body  of  our  grandmother  was  placed  in  a 
vault  at  Mount  Jerome,  pending  its  removal  to 
her  relations'  burial-place  at  Boston,  U.S.A.  It 
was  noticeable  that  from  this  time  onward  Charley 
never,  if  he  could  possibly  avoid  it,  attended  a 
funeral. 

After  this  sad  affair  Charley  and  I  went  down 
to  Casino,  the  dower -house  near  Avondale, 
for  a  change.  We  had  many  friends  there,  and 
were  asked  out  repeatedly  to  dinners  and  to 
cricket  matches,  and  spent  many  pleasant  even- 
ings with  Mr.  Edwards,  the  engineer  of  the  Dublin, 
Wicklow,  and  Wexford  Railway  (now  the  Dublin 
and  South-Eastern),  which  was  then  in  course  of 
construction.  I  may  mention  here  that  my 
brother  got  £3,000  compensation  for  the  railway 
running  through  his  property. 

After  a  year  spent  in  Kingstown  we  all  went 


EARLYJDAYS  45 

down  to  Casino  again  for  the  winter.  Charley 
and  I  got  up  a  shooting-party  for  woodcock, 
which  were  plentiful  in  Avondale  woods.  Our 
mother  did  not  care  for  the  country,  so  took  a 
house  at  14,  Upper  Temple  Street,  Dubhn;  but 
Charley,  Fanny,  and  myself,  remained  at  Casino 
for  some  time  longer  with  our  sisters'  Italian 
governess.  We  had  a  very  happy  time,  for  we 
all  loved  Avondale,  Charley's  beautiful  home;  and 
to  me  still  there  is  no  lovelier  spot  on  earth,  and 
to  the  end  of  time  my  heart  will  sorrow  that  it  is 
no  longer  the  home  of  the  Parnells. 

We  joined  our  mother  finally  at  Temple  Street, 
and  continued  our  studies.  Emily,  Sophy,  and 
Fanny,  were  taught  Italian  and  German  by 
M.  Rossin.  The  others — Henry,  Anna,  and  Theo- 
dosia — were  still  among  the  juveniles.  I  went  to 
the  School  of  Mining  in  Stephen's  Green,  and  there 
obtained  two  certificates  for  mining  and  geology, 
while  I  also  kept  up  my  painting.  Just  about 
this  time  Sophy  married  Mr.  McDermott,  and  went 
to  live  in  Fitzwilliam  Square. 

Emily  felt  greatly  not  being  able  to  marry 
her  sweetheart.  Captain  Dickinson,  and  became 
very  depressed.  Under  his  will,  our  father, 
fearing  she  would  not  be  happy  with  Captain 
Dickinson,  made  her  no  bequest,  with  a  view  to 
rendering  the  marriage  impossible;  but  she  re- 
mained true  to  her  lover,  and  after  an  engagement 
lasting  ten  years  they  were  married. 


46        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

Fanny  at  this  time  was  engaged  to  Mr.  Catter- 
son  Smith,  the  celebrated  artist,  who  at  that  time, 
however,  had  not  made  his  name,  so  that  Charley- 
raised  strong  objections  to  the  match.  I  think 
he  afterwards  regretted  taking  this  course,  as 
Fanny  never  married. 

Looking  back  over  our  past  lives,  I  can  see  that 
it  was  here  at  Temple  Street  that  our  fates  were 
really  decided.  From  this  time  forward  great 
changes  took  place  in  the  life  of  each  of  us,  and 
this  may  be  said  to  have  been  the  birth  of  our 
careers,  especially  Charley's. 


CHAPTER   V 

AT  WISHAW'S 

Back  to   School  . 

About  four  years  after  our  father's  death,  our 
mother  became  anxious  about  sending  Charley 
and  myself  to  a  private  tutor,  in  order  to  prepare 
us  for  the  University.  When  talking  one  day  to 
the  late  Lord  Meath,  she  asked  him  what  would 
be  a  good  place  to  complete  her  sons'  education. 
He  told  her  that  his  own  son,  Lord  Brabazon  (the 
present  Earl  of  Meath),  was  then  with  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Wishaw,  at  the  Rectory,  Chipping  Norton, 
England — a  place  which  he  thoroughly  recom- 
mended. Mother  then  went  over  to  England  and 
saw  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Wishaw,  and  decided  to  send  us 
both  there.  At  that  time  I  was  about  nineteen, 
and  Charley  fifteen. 

Having  said  good-bye  to  mother,  we  left  Kings- 
town by  the  early  boat,  and  got  to  Chipping 
Norton  late  in  the  evening.  The  Rectory — a 
pleasant-looking,  two-storied  country  house — was 
about  half  a  mile  from  the  station,  so  we  started 
to  walk  there.  On  reaching  Mr.  Wishaw's,  Charley 
(whose  highly-strung,  nervous    temperament  was 

47 


48        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

even  then  noticeable)  exclaimed,  on  seeing  the 
graveyard  facing  the  Rectory:  "  I  say,  John,  I 
don't  quite  like  this;  I  hope  I  won't  get  into  any 
rows  here."  He  had  hardly  said  this  when  he 
slipped  while  knocking  at  the  door,  and  nearly 
fell  through  the  glass  panel,  crying  out:  **  This  is 
a  good  beginning !" 

Mr.  Wishaw,  who  was  a  pleasant-featured  man, 
with  hair  just  turning  grey,  came  up  to  welcome 
us,  and  introduced  us  to  our  future  companions. 
These  were  Lord  Brabazon,  Mr.  Pilkington  (after- 
wards an  M.P.),  and  Mr.  Louis  Wingfield  (cousin 
of  Lord  Powerscourt).  When  we  had  all  sat  down 
to  supper,  Charley  and  Lord  Brabazon  began  a 
lively  conversation  on  cricket,  a  game  in  which 
they  were  both  deeply  interested. 

I  may  mention  that  it  was  a  peculiarity  of  my 
brother's  that  then,  as  in  after-life,  it  was  hard 
to  get  him  to  talk  on  any  subject  unless  he  was 
really  interested  in  it.  Once  I  spoke  to  him  about 
this,  and  he  replied:  "  My  idea  is  to  mind  my  own 
affairs,  and  leave  other  people's  alone." 

Being  the  youngest  pupils  there,  we  were  given 
a  classroom  to  ourselves,  and  were  lodged  at  a 
small  cottage  opposite  the  Rectory.  Mr.  Wishaw 
himself  taught  me  writing,  spelling,  and  recita- 
tion, as,  having  only  been  in  school  at  Paris,  I 
had  not  made  the  progress  I  should  have  done  with 
the  English  language.  As  I  was  very  fond  of 
painting,  Mr.  Wishaw  encouraged  me  to  copy  his 


EARLY  DAYS  49 

own  pictures,  he  himself  being  a  clever  artist,  and 
he  also  frequently  played  chess  with  me. 

Charley  having  expressed  a  desire  to  go  to  Cam- 
bridge, a  special  master  was  engaged  for  him.  He 
was  a  clever  man,  though  a  little  deformed;  but 
Charley  and  he  never  got  on.  My  brother  ob- 
jected to  his  mode  of  teaching,  which  led  to  fre- 
quent quarrels,  culminating  one  day  in  a  fearful  row. 

I  can  see  my  brother  now,  his  face  aflame  with 
passion,  and  his  mouth  twitching  nervously,  while 
he  denounced  the  teacher  and  his  methods.  Mr. 
Wishaw  had  to  interfere,  and  told  Charley  that  if 
he  did  not  apologize  he  would  be  sent  home. 
The  apology  was  finally  forthcoming,  but  it  was  a 
very  reluctant  and  grudging  one,  as  Charley  fully 
believed  that  he  was  in  the  right.  The  result  was 
that  he  could  never  endure  this  teacher  afterwards, 
and  his  studies  suffered  considerably  in  consequence. 

In  spite  of  this,  his  days  at  Chipping  Norton 
were  happy  ones,  and  he  thoroughly  enjoyed 
riding,  hunting,  and  playing  cricket.  He  and  a 
special  friend  of  his  went  for  many  walks  together, 
and  made  the  acquaintance  of  several  of  the 
young  ladies  of  the  neighbourhood. 

A  Love  Affair. 

One  bright,  pretty  girl  especially  attracted 
Charley,  and  I  used  continually  to  meet  them  to- 
gether  on   the   country   roads,    especially   those 

4 


50        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

lonely  spots  suited  for  lovers*  walks.  When  we 
met  in  this  way  I  never  joined  them,  as  Charley 
was  very  jealous  of  any  other  fellow,  especially 
of  me.  While  this  attraction  lasted,  his  studies 
were  considerably  interrupted;  but  when  she 
went  away  he  set  to  work  steadily,  determined 
to  master  the  subjects  before  him,  and  qualify 
himself  as  quickly  as  possible  for  Cambridge. 
Although  he  was  at  this  time  only  sixteen,  I  think 
this  little  romance  instilled  into  him  a  feeling  of 
manhood,  and  made  him  eager  to  take  a  place  in 
the  world — how  great  a  one  neither  he  nor  any  of 
his  friends  had  any  idea  of  then.  Certainly  he 
had  no  idea  at  that  time  of  entering  the  great 
arena  of  politics. 

We  returned  for  the  Christmas  holidays  to 
Temple  Street,  Dublin,  where,  after  a  loving 
welcome,  mother  told  us  how  pleased  she  was  to 
see  such  a  great  improvement  in  both  her  boys. 
She  was  eager  to  hear  every  detail  of  our  life  at 
Chipping  Norton,  and  was  delighted  to  have  us 
with  her  once  more. 

As  Avondale  was  at  this  time  let  to  Mr.  Ed- 
wardes,  the  railway  engineer,  Charley,  Fanny, 
and  myself,  went  down  to  Casino,  where  we 
found  Emily  with  her  governess,  Mdlle.  Rossina. 
This  lady  took  a  great  fancy  to  Charley,  but  he 
made  no  response,  preferring  to  come  out  with 
me  shooting  and  exploring  the  lovely  country 
around  Avondale,   and  having  long  chats  with 


EARLY  DAYS  51 

Mrs.  Twopenny,  his  old  nurse,  whose  genuine 
delight  at  seeing  him  again  thoroughly  pleased 
and  flattered  Charley. 

After  spending  a  happy  fortnight  at  Casino,  we 
returned  to  Temple  Street,  and  spent  a  few  days 
with  our  mother  before  returning  to  school.  On 
our  way  back,  we  had  got  as  far  as  Chester,  when 
Charley  suddenly  said,  "  John,  we  will  each  go 
by  a  different  way,  and  I  bet  I'll  be  there  first." 
I  replied,  "  No,  you  won't,  for  I'll  go  by  Oxford, 
the  usual  way";  but  Charley's  last  words  as  we 
parted  at  the  station  were,  "  You'll  see  that  I'll 
be  there  before  you."  However,  it  turned  out 
that  both  our  trains  arrived  at  Chipping  Norton 
Junction  (now  known  as  Kingham)  at  the  same 
time,  and  we  joined  one  another  on  the  plat- 
form, much  to  Charley's  disgust  when  he  first 
caught  sight  of  me,  though  a  moment  later  we 
were  laughing  heartily  together. 

After  we  had  settled  down  to.  study  again, 
Charley  took  a  keen  interest  in  mechanics,  and 
altogether  did  fairly  well  at  his  lessons. 

About  this  time  Mrs.  Wishaw  died,  and  Charley 
and  I  went  back  to  Dublin,  not  returning  until 
after  the  funeral. 

We  often  went  to  play  cricket  at  Churchill,  a 
village  near  Chipping  Norton,  where  Charley  got 
a  high  reputation  as  a  bat,  wicket-keeper,  and 
catch. 

To  my  great  delight,  I  managed  to  get  per- 


52        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

mission  from  the  owner  of  the  river  to  fish  there 
when  I  wanted  to;  but  one  day  I  was  bringing 
away  such  a  good  haul  when  I  met  him  that  he 
took  the  leave  away. 

Charley  was  very  fond  of  arguing  during  his 
school-days,  and  we  all  said  he  would  have  made  a 
splendid  lawyer,  for,  try  as  we  would,  we  could 
never  get  the  better  of  him  in  an  argument. 

We  were  both  good  walkers,  but  he  preferred 
walking  alone.  He  was  fond  of  ridiculing  my  par- 
ticular  tastes,  but  I  did  not  mind  that,  for  I  knew 
it  was  not  due  to  want  of  affection,  but  simply 
a  manner  he  had.  Being  a  good  dancer,  Charley 
was  invited  out  a  great  deal,  and  was  a  thorough 
favourite  with  the  girls. 

At  College. 

Shortly  after  our  return  from  Chipping  Norton, 
Charley  went  up  to  Cambridge,  but  I  did  not 
accompany  him.  He  was  at  Cambridge  from  1865 
to  1869,  but  spent  little  time  there,  and  left  owing 
to  his  getting  into  serious  trouble.  I  understood 
afterwards  that  an  action  for  assault  was  success- 
fully brought  against  him  in  the  Cambridge  County 
Court  by  a  merchant  named  Hamilton,  twenty 
gumeas  damages  being  awarded.  The  evidence  in 
court  was  of  a  conflicting  nat  ure,  and  Charley  never 
told  me  his  version  of  the  affair.  His  references 
to  his  undergraduate  days  were  very  brief  and  re- 


EARLY  DAYS  53 

served,  though  he  appeared  to  have  got  on  badly 
with  the  other  fellows,  and  to  have  had  many 
quarrels,  which  often  resulted  in  blows.  On  one 
occasion,  he  told  me  afterwards,  five  students 
came  to  his  bedroom  for  what  would  now  be  called 
a  "  rag,"  and  after  a  desperate  struggle  he  suc- 
ceeded in  throwing  them  all  out. 

In  any  event,  the  college  authorities  decided  to 
send  him  down  for  the  remainder  of  the  term,  of 
which,  however,  there  was  only  a  fortnight  left. 
Although  there  was  no  reason  why  he  should  not 
have  returned  at  the  beginning  of  the  next  term, 
as  he  had  not  been  expelled,  he  steadily  refused 
to  do  so,  and  his  education  thus  concluded  with- 
out his  taking  a  degree. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  fact  of  his  never 
having  been  at  a  real  school,  and  having  a  con- 
tinual change  of  tutors,  coupled  with  the  per- 
functory nature  of  his  studies  at  college,  con- 
siderably hampered  him  in  after-life.  He  often 
expressed  to  me  his  regret  that  he  had  not  received 
a  better  education,  and,  even,  that  he  had  not 
devoted  himself  with  more  application  to  such 
opportunities  as  he  had  for  study.  One  result 
was  that  he  was  always  afraid  of  lapsing  into  an 
error  of  grammar  or  spelling,  and  for  a  consider- 
able time  wrote  out  his  speeches  word  for  word, 
and  carefully  corrected  them  before  delivery. 
His  letters,  also,  throughout  his  career  show  fre- 
quent signs  of  erasure  and  alteration. 


CHAPTER  VI 

NEARING  MANHOOD 

At  the  time  of  Charley's  return  our  mother  was 
keeping  open  house  in  Temple  Street,  giving 
dinners,  balls,  and  small  dances,  to  her  many 
Dublin  friends.  Charley  was  very  popular  in 
society,  going  to  all  the  dances  and  parties.  He 
used  to  admire  and  dance  with  all  the  pretty  girls 
at  the  balls  given  by  Lord  Carlisle,  then  Lord 
Lieutenant  of  Ireland. 

In  the  Militia. 

Charley  soon  decided  to  join  the  militia.  One 
trivial  reason  that  influenced  him  was  that  by 
doing  so  he  would  be  able  to  wear  uniform  at  the 
Castle,  as  he  particularly  disliked  the  levee  dress, 
declaring  it  looked  too  much  like  a  footman's 
livery.  He  found  that  there  were  vacancies  in 
the  Wicklow  Rifles,  and  also  in  the  Armagh  Light 
Infantry;  but,  as  he  was  a  Wicklow  landed  pro- 
prietor, he  chose  the  former,  while,  as  my  estate 
was  in  Armagh,  I  joined  the  Armagh  Light  In- 
fantry. We  had  some  training  at  the  Royal 
Barracks  in  Dublin  before  joining  our  respective 

54 


EARLY  DAYS  55 

regiments,  which  were  also  afterwards  called  out 
for  training.  Charley  told  me  that  he  had  a  very 
enjoyable  time  when  training  with  his  regiment, 
as  he  went  to  no  end  of  dinners,  dances,  and  garden- 
parties,  and  I,  too,  had  very  much  the  same  ex- 
perience with  the  Armaghs.  While  we  were  in 
the  militia,  Charley  and  I  attended  all  the  levees, 
and  drawing-rooms,  and  other  entertainments,  at 
Dublin  Castle.  The  Lord  Lieutenant,  Lord  Car- 
lisle, being  a  friend  of  our  mother's,  used  to  talk 
to  us  a  good  deal,  especially  about  our  cricket 
matches. 

The  American  Civil  War. 

It  was  during  the  great  Civil  War  in  the  United 
States  that  my  brother  first  took  an  interest  in 
politics.  The  horrors  of  the  conflict  were  so  often 
discussed  by  our  grandmother  and  our  mother, 
themselves  Americans,  that  it  would  have  been 
strange  indeed  if  we  had  not  been. influenced  by 
the  tales  of  death  and  devastation  which  came 
across  the  water.  Charley  eagerly  read  every 
item  of  information  contained  in  the  newspaper, 
and  discussed  the  details  freely  with  us.  My 
mother's  sympathies  were  with  the  North,  while 
I  advocated  the  cause  of  the  South,  and  we  had 
many  a  heated,  though  friendly,  discussion  in  our 
family  circle.  Charley  supported  his  mother, 
and  we  reproduced  the  war  between  us,  with  con- 
siderable damage  to  the  furniture,  any  odd  articles 


56        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

being  held  sufficient  when  argument  failed.  1 
remember,  when  sticks  and  other  ordinary  weapons 
were  not  at  hand,  we  found  jam-pots  come  in  very 
useful.  As  the  house  was  a  rented  one,  our 
mother  had  every  often  to  pay  heavy  compensa- 
tion, owing  to  the  damage  done  through  our  keen 
interest  in  politics. 

We  had  a  visit  about  this  time  from  Mr.  Harry 
King,  the  son  of  a  wealthy  cotton-planter  and 
railroad  director  of  Augusta,  Georgia,  U.S.A. 
Our  sisters  knew  him  already,  as  he  had  come  over 
to  their  school  in  Paris  to  visit  his  own  sister, 
and  he  had  met  Charley  at  Cambridge  when  he 
was  studying  for  his  degree;  so  that  altogether 
he  was  a  very  welcome  guest  at  Temple  Street, 
where  he  remained  until  the  war  was  over,  and 
it  was  safe  for  him  to  return  to  his  Southern  home. 


A 'Shooting  Trip. 

It  was  partridge-shooting  season  at  that  time, 
so  Mr.  King,  Charley,  and  myself,  went  off  to 
Carlow  together,  taking  with  us  a  tent  in  the 
pony  trap,  while  we  sent  the  rest  of  our  baggage 
on  by  rail.  We  had  the  right  to  shoot  over  the 
entire  property,  which  had  been  left  under  our 
father's  will  to  our  brother  Henry.  We  got  our 
gamekeeper.  Jack  Whateley,  to  pitch  our  tent  on 
the  land  of  Mr.  Brownrigg,  a  tenant,  and  we  slept 
on  canvas  stretched  on  poles  stuck  into  the  ground, 


EARLY  DAYS  57 

instead  of  mattresses.  Charley  and  Mr.  King 
always  went  off  by  themselves,  but  they  brought 
home  very  little  game,  and  whenever  I  met  them 
I  found  them  hard  at  work  discussing  American 
politics,  Mr.  King,  of  course,  taking  the  part  of 
the  South,  while  Charley  upheld  with  all  his 
vigour  the  policy  of  the  North.  Unfortunately, 
these  discussions  not  only  interfered  with  the  actual 
shooting,  but  used  to  be  continued  throughout  the 
night,  so  that  just  as  I  would  be  dropping  off  to  sleep, 
tired  after  a  hard  day's  sport,  I  would  hear  their 
voices  raised  in  support  of  their  respective  parties. 
The  result  was  that  I  frequently  shied  my  boots 
at  them  with  all  my  force,  and  if  my  aim  was 
lucky,  the  discussion  generally  ended  for  the 
night. 

We  had  a  fortnight  of  this,  and  I  wondered  how 
they  could  keep  their  interest  so  much  alive  in 
the  politics  of  what  was,  after  all,  a  remote  country; 
so  much  so  that  I  said  once:  "  Charley,  if  you  ever 
take  up  politics,  you  will  certainly  fight  to  win." 
He  replied:  "  I  have  no  such  thought,  but  I  hold 
that  a  man  should  be  thorough,  and,  if  he  takes 
up  a  cause,  should  fight  to  win." 

We  bathed  every  morning  in  the  river,  and 
Charley  and  Mr.  King  used  to  run  races  in  the 
sunshine  to  dry  themselves.  Perfect  weather, 
good  comradeship,  and  excellent  sport,  made  the 
expedition  one  of  the  most  enjoyable  periods  in 
our  lives.      Often  in   after-days  Charley   and  I 


58        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

discussed  in  other  circumstances  those  jolly  times 
down  in  Carlow  when  we  were  so  free  from 
care. 

The  war  being  over,  Mr.  King  returned  to  his 
home.  Charley  and  I  went  to  see  him  off  at 
Kingsbridge,  little  thinking  how  our  fates  were  to 
be  linked  with  America,  and  especially  with  the 
South,  in  the  days  to  come. 

A  little  later  Mr.  Wishaw,  our  old  tutor,  and  his 
son,  came  over  from  England  to  see  us  at  Temple 
Street.  They  were  very  much  interested  in  all 
things  Irish,  and  the  two  of  us  took  them  down 
to  Killarney,  and  showed  them  over  that  famous 
beauty  spot.  However,  they  were  only  in  Ireland 
for  a  few  days  after  our  return  to  Dublin,  and  went 
away  longing  to  have  seen  more  of  the  country. 
Mr.  Wishaw — who,  as  I  have  said  before,  shared 
my  taste  for  art — took  some  beautiful  sketches  of 
the  scenery  in  Killarney,  which  he  said  would 
always  remind  him  of  his  brief  but  pleasant  visit 
to  Ireland. 

Charley  was  a  great  practical  mechanic,  and 
devoted  much  of  his  time  to  engineering  pursuits, 
so  that  his  life  at  Avondale  was  a  very  busy  one, 
as  he  had  also  many  social  duties.  The  Wicklow 
county  families  constantly  entertained  him,  and 
no  invitation  to  Avondale  was  ever  refused. 

I  was  returning  one  night  from  a  big  dinner 
with  Charley,  when  we  discussed  whether  I  should 
go  to  America,  as  our  uncle  Stewart  had  written 


EARLY  DAYS  59 

home  saying  that,  now  the  war  was  over,  big 
fortunes  were  to  be  made,  and  advising  me  to  go 
out  there.  I  had  just  had  a  legacy  left  me  by  a 
relative,  and  my  uncle  thought  I  had  the  chance 
of  doubling  it.  Charley  thought  I  ought  to  con- 
sult our  uncle.  Sir  Ralph  Howard,  but  from  him 
I  got  no  encouragement.  He  told  me  that  I  had 
no  need  to  go,  as  he  would  leave  me  well  off.  This, 
however,  did  not  suit  me,  as  I  had  no  fancy  for 
waiting  to  step  into  dead  men's  shoes,  and  I 
decided  to  go  to  America.  Charley  resolved  to 
invest  some  money  out  there  too,  and  promised 
to  visit  me  in  my  new  home.  In  order  to  enable 
our  sister  Emily  to  marry  Captain  Dickinson, 
Charley  got  me  to  appoint  him  agent  of  my  estate, 
which  I  did,  with  the  result  that  he  and  Emily 
were  married  soon  after. 

I  remained  in  America  for  about  a  year,  and 
was  very  busy  cotton  -  planting  and  getting 
acquainted  with  my  new  Southern  friends.  I  had 
a  very  good  time,  and  was  received  most  hospitably 
by  all  the  old  Southern  rebels,  who  made  me 
thoroughly  welcome  to  their  homes. 

When  I  returned  to  Ireland,  I  found  Charley 
busily  engaged  with  his  new  sawmills  at  Avon- 
dale,  where  he  was  trying  to  make  money  out  of 
the  fine  timber  on  the  estate. 

I  spent  that  autumn  at  Avondale,  with  Charley 
and  Captain  Dickinson.  We  were  the  only  mem- 
bers of  the  family  there,  and  were  waited  upon 


6o        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

by  Peter  Gaffney  and  his  wife  Mary,  the  latter 
looking  after  the  house,  while  Peter  attended  at 
table. 

A  Blindfold  Escapade. 

We  were  sitting  one  night,  after  a  good  dinner, 
round  one  of  those  roaring  pinewood  fires  that 
Charley  always  so  much  enjoyed,  when  the  three 
of  us  began  to  discuss  the  blindfold  walking  craze 
which  was  then  the  rage  in  Dublin,  The  news- 
papers of  the  time,  which  devoted  a  great  deal  of 
space  to  the  subject,  pointed  out  how  difficult  it 
was  for  people  to  find  their  way  even  between 
the  most  familiar  places  and  over  the  shortest 
distances.  Our  conversation  resulted  in  Charley 
and  Captain  Dickinson  betting  me  that  I  would 
not  find  my  way  blindfolded  from  Avondale  to 
Casino,  not  a  very  great  distance,  it  is  true,  but 
one  plentifully  strewn  with  obstacles. 

I  took  the  bet,  and,  being  blindfolded,  set  out 
from  the  hall  door  of  Avondale  across  the  lawn, 
Charley  and  Captain  Dickinson  following  to  see 
that  I  did  not  hurt  m3^self,  but  not  interfering 
with  the  direction  I  took.  At  first  I  got  mixed 
up  with  the  big  trees  on  the  lawn,  but  knowing 
every  inch  of  the  grounds,  and  having  a  special 
love  for  the  trees,  I  knew  as  soon  as  I  got  hold  of 
the  holly-tree  at  the  head  of  the  lawn  where  I 
was,  and  set  off  in  a  bee-line  across  the  cricket- 
lawn,  got  to  the  road  ditch,  crossed  it  without 


EARLY  DAYS  6i 

falling  in,  and  found  the  gate  of  Casino,  which  I 
climbed,  still  blindfolded. 

Once  over  the  gate  I  took  off  the  bandage, 
expecting  to  see  the  two  of  them  and  be  con- 
gratulated on  my  success,  but  to  my  astonishinent 
I  was  alone.  I  made  my  way  back  to  Avondale, 
and  found  the  pair  sitting  snugly  by  the  fire, 
thoroughly  enjoying  what  they  expected  to  have 
been  my  series  of  mishaps  over  the  difficult 
route. 

Charley  hunted  a  great  deal  at  Avondale,  and 
used  to  come  home  covered  with  mud,  from  his 
many  tumbles  in  the  field.  He  used  to  tell  me 
that  in  hunting,  as  in  everything  else,  his  ambition 
was  to  be  first  in  the  field. 


The  Sawmills. 

Charley,  although  when  he  came  of  age  he  found 
himself  a  pretty  well-to-do  country  gentleman, 
showed  also  considerable  business  capability,  and 
directly  he  had  the  control  of  affairs  set  to  work  to 
benefit  his  property  by  every  possible  means.  It 
must  be  remembered  that,  although  his  income 
from  Avondale  was  a  large  one,  he  had  out  of  it  to 
keep  the  whole  of  his  family,  who  had  no  money 
except  the  small  annuities  coming  to  them  out  of 
my  property  in  Armagh.  My  mother  was  also 
extremely  fond  of  entertaining,  and,  as  she  had 
been  left  nothing  under  father's  will,  Charley  con- 


62        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

ceived  the  idea  of  making  sufficient  money  out  of 
his  timber  to  provide  her  with  ample  funds  for 
her  wants.  Accordingly  he  erected  a  small  saw- 
mill at  Avondale,  where  he  had  the  timber  cut  by 
machinery,  thus  introducing  a  new  business  into 
Wicklow,  as  the  only  other  sawmill  in  the  Valley 
of  the  Seven  Churches  was  that  owned  by  Captain 
Bookey,  of  Derrybawn.  Captain  Bookey  had  a 
very  fine  demesne  through  which  the  Avonmore 
ran  to  the  Meeting  of  the  Waters. 

The  mills  at  Avondale,  it  is  curious  to  note, 
were  worked  by  water  from  the  pond  which  we 
made  as  boys.  Captain  Bookey  and  Charley,  who 
were  both  young  men  and  great  friends,  took 
much  interest  in  their  mills,  which  at  that  time 
were  the  only  ones  in  the  county.  The  only  time 
that  I  met  Captain  Bookey  was  at  a  cricket  match 
at  Avondale  just  before  he  started  on  a  cruise  on 
the  Mediterranean,  which  ended  disastrously,  as 
the  yacht  was  overturned  in  a  squall,  and  Captain 
Bookey  was  caught  in  the  sail  and  drowned  before 
he  could  be  extricated. 

When  I  came  back  to  Ireland  after  my  next 
visit  to  America,  I  found  Charley  still  down  at 
Avondale,  busy  with  his  sawmills,  his  cricket 
matches,  and  his  parties.  My  mother  was  then 
living  in  Paris,  as  Temple  Street  had  been  given 
up,  and  the  family  scattered,  never  again  to  meet 
all  under  the  same  roof.  Charley  often  got  in- 
vitations from  Paris  to  balls  at  the  British  Embassy, 


EARLY  DAYS  63 

and  thought  nothing  of  making  a  flying  trip  to 
France  to  attend  one;  in  fact,  I  do  not  think  he 
ever  missed  one. 

AUGHAVANNAGH. 

During  this  time  Charley  and  Captain  Dickinson 
spent  a  good  deal  of  time  grouse-shooting  at 
Aughavannagh.  Originally  one  of  the  barracks 
erected  by  the  Government  during  the  rebellion 
of  1798,  it  commanded  a  wide  view  of  the  lonely 
but  beautiful  country  around.  In  Charley's  days 
it  was  used  purely  as  a  shooting-lodge,  and  fell 
considerably  into  disrepair.  It  has  since,  how- 
ever, been  largely  rebuilt  by  Mr.  John  Redmond, 
my  brother's  successor  in  the  leadership  of  the 
Irish  party,  who  has  converted  it  into  a  fine  resi- 
dence. 

There  used  to  be  a  legend,  which  we  often  heard 
repeated  during  our  visits  to  Aughavannagh,  that 
there  existed  a  secret  passage  from  the  old  barracks 
to  the  mountain,  two  miles  away.  Patrick 
O'Toole,  our  old  gamekeeper,  used  to  point  out 
to  us  a  spot  near  the  top  of  the  mountain,  which 
he  said  was  the  opening  of  the  passage,  but  it  was 
so  surrounded  by  immense  boulders  that  it  was 
impossible  to  reach  it.  Still,  there  certainly  were 
a  number  of  hollows  in  the  mountain  which  looked 
as  if  they  might  have  been  old  openings  which  had 
been  closed  by  the  falling  in  of  soil.  Charley  and 
his  friend,  Mr.  Corbett,  used  to  spend  a  great  deal 


64        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

of  time  arguing  as  to  the  existence  of  this  passage 
during  their  rambles  over  the  mountain  when 
they  were  shooting  or  inspecting  the  turf. 

So  ends  the  happiest  period  of  my  brother's 
life,  before  he  took  up  the  great  fight  on  behalf  of 
his  country,  on  which  all  his  hopes  and  interests 
were  centred. 


BOOK   II 

STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE 

"  Sore  disgrace  it  is  to  see  the  Arbitress  of  Thrones 
Vassal  to  a  Saxaneen  of  cold  and  sapless  bones. 
Bitter  anguish  wrings  our  souls  with  heavy  sighs 
and  groans : 
We  wait  the  Young  Deliverer  of  Kathaleen-ny- 
Houlahan."* 

J.  C.  Mangan. 

*  A  symbolical  name  for  Ireland. 


CHAPTER   I 

THE  FENIANS 

The  Fenian  Movement. 

It  is  necessary  to  go  back  a  few  years  to  explain 
the  Fenian  movement,  which  had  a  certain  in- 
fluence on  Charley's  career,  though  it  was  by  no 
means  the  main  motive  for  his  entering  politics, 
as  has  generally  been  stated. 

After  the  conclusion  of  the  American  Civil  War, 
a  number  of  the  Irish  soldiers,  fired  with  the  spirit 
of  independence,  came  over  to  Ireland  (while 
others  made  an  abortive  raid  on  Canada)  to  urge 
the  people  to  establish  a  republic  of  their  own, 
free  from  any  British  rule.  They  were  desperate 
men  inured  to  hardships  through  their  terrible 
experiences  in  America,  and  thoroughly  sanguine 
as  to  the  success  of  their  cause. 

The  chief  period  of  their  campaign  in  Ireland 
was  from  1865  to  1867.  Had  they  exerted  their 
full  force  in  the  former  year,  they  would  probably, 
as  a  few  of  their  surviving  leaders  tell  me,  if  they 
had  not  achieved  success,  at  least  have  made  a 
stubborn  and  convincing  fight,  which,  if  it  did 
not  effect  their  full  purpose  of  separation,  might 

67 


68        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

at  least  have  brought  Home  Rule  nearer.  Still, 
it  must  be  remembered  that,  so  far  as  Charley  and 
myself  were  concerned,  we  were  not  associated 
either  with  their  aims  or  their  methods. 

In  1866  many  of  the  old  American  soldiers  acted 
as  recruiting  sergeants  for  the  Irish  republic 
among  the  army  itself.  Disaffection  spread 
rapidly,  and  large  numbers  of  the  rank  and  file 
declared  themselves  adherents  of  the  Fenian  cause, 
and  openly  joined  in  the  singing  of  revolutionary 
songs  at  the  "  free- and- easies  "  which  were  then 
held  throughout  Dublin.  The  leaders,  however, 
thought  it  better  to  wait  for  American  support, 
and  to  spread  the  movement  more  widely  through 
Ireland,  before  making  a  decisive  blow.  The 
result  was  that  the  English  authorities  became 
alarmed,  and  promptly  drafted  the  disaffected 
portions  of  the  army  to  England  and  remote 
portions  of  the  Empire. 

Finally,  in  March,  1867,  a  definite  outbreak 
took  place.  The  Fenian  forces  stormed  the 
Stepaside  police  barracks,  near  Enniskerry  in  the 
Dublin  mountains.  This  was  closely  followed  by 
what  was  known  as  the  Battle  of  Tallaght.  A 
large  but  inadequately  armed  body  of  Fenians 
were  marching  along  the  road  from  Wicklow,  when 
they  were  challenged  by  the  chief  of  a  body  of 
police  who  were  lying  in  wait  for  them.  A  shot 
was  fired,  and  the  police  charged  the  disorganized 
column,  quickly  routing  them.     Domiciliary  raids 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  69 

in  search  of  arms,  followed  by  many  arrests,  were 
then  made,  and  the  movement  appeared  to  be 
subdued,  when  what  are  known  as  the  Manchester 
Murders  occurred,  a  policeman.  Sergeant  Brett, 
being  accidentally  shot  and  killed  owing  to  a 
pistol  being  fired  through  the  lock  of  a  police  van 
in  which  some  Fenian  prisoners  were  being  re- 
moved to  gaol.  Three  of  the  four  men  arrested 
in  connection  with  the  affair  were  executed,  and 
died  strongl}^  protesting  their  innocence  of  any 
intent  to  kill,  or  even  to  injure,  the  police  officer. 
Their  death  on  the  scaffold,  accompanied  as  it  was 
by  the  levity  of  the  large  crowd  assembled  outside 
the  prison  gate,  roused  a  feeling  of  unexampled 
indignation  throughout  Ireland,  in  which  my 
brother  himself  joined,  holding  as  he  did  the 
opinion,  which  he  shared  with  many  of  the  other 
more  moderate  well-wishers  of  Ireland,  that  the 
killing  of  the  sergeant  was  purely  due  to  an 
accident,  and  was  aided  by  the  officer  himself 
bending  his  head  towards  the  lock  in  order,  as 
he  thought,  to  escape  the  bullets. 

The  Fenians  and  Ourselves. 

Our  mother,  who  was  devotedly  attached  to  the 
cause  of  freedom,  and  our  uncle,  Charles  Stewart, 
whose  investments  were  almost  entirelyin  Southern 
securities,  felt  a  great  deal  of  sympathy  with  the 
Fenians,  especially  when  the  Government  adopted 


70        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

drastic  measures  to  stamp  out  the  movement  in 
Ireland. 

Owing  to  our  mother  being  a  prominent  Ameri- 
can woman,  and  to  her  undisguised  sympathies 
with  the  Fenian  outlaws,  a  number  of  tramps  and 
impostors  used  to  call  at  our  house  in  Temple 
Street  for  aid,  a  proceeding  to  which  Charley 
strongly  objected.  In  fact,  I  think  he  came  to 
look  upon  most  of  the  nondescript  visitors  to  the 
house  as  tramps,  as  I  did  also  to  a  certain  extent. 
He  finally  got  so  tired  of  their  constant  visits 
that  he  used  to  wait  for  the  so-called  Fenians 
behind  the  hall  door  in  Temple  Street,  and  (like 
Sam  Weller  at  Ipswich),  directly  the  door  was 
open,  make  a  rush  for  them  and  kick  them  down 
the  steps. 

My  sister  Fanny  was  always  the  poetess  of  the 
family,  as  also  our  arch-rebel;  she  entered  whole- 
heartedly into  the  Fenian  movement,  and  wrote  a 
series  of  stirring  poems  for  O' Donovan  Rossa's 
paper,  United  Ireland,  for  which  he  used  to 
pay  her  small  sums.  I  used  generally  to  escort 
her  to  the  office,  but  Charley  made  fun  of  her 
poetry,  and  steadfastly  refused  to  accompany  her 
to  the  Fenian  stronghold.  The  newspaper  was 
finally  suppressed,  and  the  offices  seized  by  the 
police.  0' Donovan  Rossa  was  arrested  and  tried 
for  high- treason. 

Fanny  and  I  attended  every  day  of  the  trial, 
and  as  we  sat  near  the  prisoner,  whose  firm  and 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  71 

courageous  demeanour  we  could  not  help  but 
admire,  we  once  went  so  far  as  to  buy  a  bouquet 
with  the  intention  of  throwing  it  into  the  dock, 
but  we  never  mustered  up  sufficient  spirit  actually 
to  throw  it.  I  still  remember  the  cries  of  in- 
dignation mingled  with  cheers  of  encouragement 
which  burst  forth  in  court  when  the  terrible 
sentence  was  passed.  I  led  away  Fanny,  who 
could  hardly  restrain  her  tears,  and  who,  I  think, 
pictured  herself  as  the  next  occupant  of  the 
dock. 

A  Police  Raid. 

In  the  days  of  frenzied  police  action  which 
followed  the  rising  and  Rossa's  trial,  our  mother 
not  unnaturally  became  suspected  of  complicity 
with  the  Fenians,  owing  to  the  number  of  visits 
paid  by  suspicious  characters  to  our  house  in 
Temple  Street.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  she  had 
actually  assisted  one  of  those  connected  with  the 
Manchester  affair  to  escape  to  America  in  female 
clothing. 

However,  one  day  a  body  of  police  suddenly 
appeared  at  our  house  in  Temple  Street  with  a 
search  warrant,  and  insisted  upon  going  through 
the  whole  house. 

All  they  could  find  were  the  militia  uniforms  of 
Charley  and  myself,  which  they  mistook  for  Fenian 
regimentals,  and  insisted  upon  taking  away,  in 
spite  of  the  protestations  of  the  whole  family. 


72        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

Charley  especially  disliked  the  idea  of  his  uniform 
being  taken  for  a  Fenian  one. 

Some  time  after  this  we  wanted  to  go  to  the 
levee  at  the  Castle,  but  our  uniforms  were  then 
in  the  possession  of  the  Government.  Charley 
treated  the  affair  as  a  j  oke,  and  chaffed  our  mother 
on  the  dangers  she  ran  owing  to  her  complicity 
with  the  Fenian  rising.  He  felt,  however,  the 
unjustified  slight  which  was  imposed  on  him  by 
being  debarred  from  the  festivities  at  the  Castle 
and  Viceregal  Lodge.  He  distinctly  resented  the 
idea  of  being  stamped  as  a  Fenian,  especially  as 
he  was  in  the  Queen's  army,  and  was  proud  of 
the  fact.  This  preyed  somewhat  on  his  mind, 
and  he  finally  declared  that  he  would  leave  the 
house  if  anything  more  was  said  about  the  Fenians. 
Charley  and  I  wanted  to  go  to  the  Castle  to  pay 
our  respects  to  Lord  Carlisle,  but  we  were  ham- 
pered by  having  no  uniform.  Still,  as  the  Viceroy 
was  an  old  friend  of  our  mother's,  we  obtained  the 
return  of  our  uniforms  by  simply  going  to  the 
Castle  and  asking  for  them,  though  we  had  to 
endure  a  great  deal  of  chaff  from  the  officers,  who 
asked  how  it  was  that  we  came  to  be  among  the 
Fenians. 

My  recollection  of  Charley's  attitude  at  the  time 
is,  as  I  have  recounted,  distinctly  against  his 
entrance  into  politics  being  in  any  sense  due  to 
the  influence  of  the  Fenian  movement. 


CHAPTER  II 

NEARLY  MARRIED 

A  WicKLOW  Romance. 

Until  1871,  Charley,  though  not  insensible  to  the 
charms  of  the  fair  sex,  had  had  nothing  in  the 
nature  of  a  really  serious  love  affair.  In  Wicklow, 
it  is  true,  he  spent  a  good  deal  of  time  riding  and 
hunting  and  dancing  with  a  young  lady  belonging 
to  a  neighbouring  county  family,  who  was  not 
only  extremely  beautiful,  but  possessed  of  con- 
siderable charm  of  manner.  The  talk  of  the  tea- 
tables  soon  magnified  the  intimacy  into  an  engage- 
ment, or  at  any  rate  an  impending  one,  but  I 
think  there  was  little  foundation  for  the  statement 
beyond  the  mutual  attraction  and  sincere  friend- 
ship which  existed  between  the  two  young  people. 
Charley  often  told  me  how  much  he  enjoyed  his 
visits  to  her  father's  house,  and  referred  to  Miss 

C as  being  an  extremely  nice  girl.     Further 

than  that,  I  am  sure,  things  never  went,  and,  as 
so  often  happened,  the  two  young  people  gradually 
drifted  apart  as  the  years  passed  by.  Certainly,  his 
really  serious  entanglement  in  Paris  quickly  effaced 
all  memory  of  this  slightl3'-developed  romance. 

73 


74        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

A  Serious  Love  Affair. 

It  was  during  the  time  when  Charley  used  to 
make  repeated  trips  to  Paris,  where  most  of  his 
family  were  then  living,  that  he  became  involved 
in  a  love  affair  of  a  more  serious  nature,  which 
had  a  marked  effect  on  his  character  and  subse- 
quent career,  and  very  nearly  resulted  in  his 
bringing  a  wife  home  to  Avondale. 

Both  he  and  I  were  staying  with  our  uncle, 
Charles  Stewart  (son  of  the  Commodore),  at  his 
flat  in  the  Champs  Elysees,  when  we  were  intro- 
duced to  a  3^oung  American  lady.  Miss  Woods, 
who  had  the  entree  to  the  very  best  society  in 
Paris.  She  was  fair-haired,  extremely  beautiful 
and  vivacious,  and  Charley  fell  a  complete  slave 
to  her  attractions. 

I  may  mention  that  Charley  was  at  that  time 
moving  in  the  best  society  of  Paris,  and  was 
strongly  urged  by  his  uncle  to  marry  one  of  the 
many  heiresses  whom  he  was  constantly  meeting 
Although  he  was  too  proud  and  high-spirited  to 
consent  to  a  purely  mercenary  match,  he  was 
genuinely  attracted  by  the  beauty  and  charm  of 
this  lady,  and  the  fact  of  her  being  heiress  to  a 
large  fortune  doubtless  suggested  to  him  the 
possibility  of  his  restoring  his  family  to  the 
position  it  formerly  held.  But  as  time  went  on 
there  is  no  doubt  that  passion  quite  superseded 
any  thoughts  of  mere  worldly  advantage. 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  75 

Love  at  First  Sight. 

Love  in  this  case  occurred  actually  at  first  sight, 
for  the  first  signs  of  Charley's  infatuation,  as  it 
subsequently  proved  to  be,  were  shown  at  an 
Anglo-American  party  given  by  our  uncle,  where 
they  were  introduced  to  one  another.  Moving 
as  they  did  in  the  same  circles,  their  opportunities 
for  meeting  were  many,  and  a  mutual  attraction 
soon  ripened  into  a  sincere  affection,  culminating 
in  an  engagement. 

Charley  and  Miss  Woods  were  at  that  time  almost 
inseparable.  They  attended  most  of  the  principal 
social  functions,  where  they  were  always  to  be  seen 
together,  as  also  was  the  case  at  the  theatres  and 
other  entertainments,  while  they  very  often  went 
for  walks  in  the  evenings  in  the  Champs  Elysees 
or  the  Bois.  Their  engagement  was  everywhere 
recognized,  and  they  were  the  recipients  of  the 
warmest  congratulations. 

Miss  Woods's  family  suddenly  decided  to  go  to 
Rome,  as  is  the  usual  custom  among  both  French 
and  Americans  in  October.  Her  sudden  departure 
made  him  very  despondent,  and  he  conceived 
the  idea  of  following  her  to  Rome.  He  was 
obliged,  however,  to  return  first  to  Ireland  on 
business. 

After  a  hurried  week  at  Avondale,  he  spent 
two  days  at  Paris  with  his  uncle,  and  then  set  off 
for  Rome. 


76        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

Miss  Woods  appeared  to  be  greatly  delighted  at 
his  appearance,  but  her  parents  were  not  quite  so 
cordial.  He  spent  some  time  in  Rome,  visiting 
the  principal  places  of  interest  in  company  with 
Miss  Woods,  with  whom  he  generally  walked  arm 
in  arm. 

Then  there  arrived  a  letter  from  Charley's  uncle, 
Mr.  Stewart,  warning  him  not  to  stop  too  long  in 
Rome,  for  fear  of  catching  the  Roman  fever. 
Charley  had  always  a  great  dread  of  infection,  and 
on  receipt  of  the  letter  made  instant  preparations 
to  return  to  Ireland.  Miss  Woods  wished  him  to 
stop  longer,  but,  seeing  he  was  resolved,  made  him 
promise  to  come  to  Paris  when  they  returned 
there. 

Once  back  at  Avondale,  he  set  hard  to  work 
developing  his  land;  but  the  aloofness  which  he 
displayed  to  the  many  eligible  ladies  he  met  in 
Wicklow  society  was  greatly  noticed,  and  proved 
his  single-hearted  devotion  to  Miss  Woods. 

He  returned  again  to  Paris,  where  he  had  an 
affectionate  meeting  with  his  fiancee,  and  they 
again  became  inseparable  companions.  In  the 
spring  of  1871  he  returned  to  Avondale,  owing  to 
his  presence  being  required  at  the  sawmills. 
While  there  he  set  to  work  thoroughly  pre- 
paring the  house  for  the  reception  of  his  expected 
bride. 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  ^7 


A  Catastrophe. 

He  had  not  long  been  back  to  Avondale,  when 
he  received  a  short  and  not  very  informative  letter 
from  Miss  Woods,  saying  that  her  mother  and 
herself  were  returning  immediately  to  their  home 
at  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  U.S.A.  The  letter 
never  mentioned  anything  with  regard  to  the 
engagement  or  expressed  any  grief  for  the  sudden 
parting. 

Charley  was  dumbfounded  when  he  received  it. 
He  was,  however,  too  sincerely  attached  to  Miss 
Woods  to  accept  such  an  implied  conclusion  of 
their  engagement.  He  hurried  back  to  Paris,  to 
find  that  Miss  Woods  had  already  left  for  America, 
and,  after  discussing  American  investments  with 
his  uncle,  set  off  armed  with  several  business  letters 
of  introduction,  for  the  dual  purpose  of  trans- 
acting some  business  and  at  the  same  time  asking 
Miss  Woods  face  to  face  her  reasons  for  deserting 
him.  But  there  is  little  doubt  that  the  first 
reason  was  simply  a  pretext  to  justify  the  second, 
although,  as  matters  turned  out,  he  actually  did 
a  considerable  amount  of  business  during  his  visit 
to  America. 

I  had  at  that  time  returned  to  my  cotton- 
growing  and  fruit-farming  in  Alabama,  whither, 
however,  news  of  Charley's  engagement  had  per- 
meated to  me. 


78        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

Directly  on  his  arrival  in  America,  Charley  set 
out  for  Newport.  He  was  received  cordially  by 
Miss  Woods  and  her  relations,  and  seems  to  have 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  things  were  as  they 
had  been  before.  One  day,  however,  Miss  Woods 
suddenly  announced  that  she  did  not  intend  to 
marry  him,  as  he  was  only  an  Irish  gentleman 
without  any  particular  name  in  public. 

Charley,  heartbroken,  tried  his  best  to  make 
her  reconsider  her  decision,  but,  finding  she  was 
determined,  gave  up  the  task  as  hopeless. 

Resigned. 

I  received  a  telegram  from  him  one  day  saying 
that  he  was  coming  down  to  see  me  in  Alabama. 
After  he  arrived,  we  had  a  walk  round  the  planta- 
tion, and  Charley  suddenly  exclaimed:  "  John,  I 
want  you  to  come  home  with  me;  you  have  been 
over  here  long  enough." 

At  that  time,  however,  I  had  just  entered  into 
a  new  enterprise — peach-growing — and  was  eagerly 
expecting  the  next  year's  crop,  so  I  felt  compelled 
to  refuse.  He  seemed  very  sullen  and  dejected, 
but  made  no  reference  to  his  love  affair. 

Knowing  his  usual  reticence,  I  said  nothing 
about  Miss  Woods  (though,  from  letters  I  had 
received,  I  knew  pretty  well  how  matters  stood), 
thinking  that  sooner  or  later  he  would  tell  me 
all,  as  he  usually  did. 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  79 

I  was  out  a  great  deal  at  the  time,  attending  to 
my  plantation,  but  mj^  manager's  wife,  Mrs. 
Merna,  told  me  that  when  alone  he  used  to  give 
himself  up  to  fits  of  brooding  and  dejection.  They 
would  often,  when  they  came  into  the  room  sud- 
denl}^,  find  him  crouching  over  the  fire,  his  face 
covered  with  his  hands,  sighing  bitterly.  When 
I  came  in,  he  used  generally  to  put  on  a  pretence 
of  gaiety,  and  I  was  so  occupied  with  my  affairs 
that  I  did  not  notice  into  what  low  spirits  he  had 
fallen  until  Mrs.  Merna  asked  me  what  could  be 
done  to  cheer  him  up. 

I  then  put  the  question  bluntly.  I  said: 
"  Come,  Charley,  tell  me  what  is  the  matter  with 
you."  He  hesitated  a  moment,  and  then  poured 
forth  the  pitiful  tale  of  his  love  for  Miss  Woods, 
and  how  she  had  suddenly  jilted  him.  He  added: 
"  John,  I  have  a  good  mind  to  go  back  again  to 
Newport  and  see  her.  She  might  change  her 
mind.  You  know,  I  was  and  am  very  fond  of 
her." 

I  said:  **  Do  just  as  you  think  best." 

However,  he  seems  to  have  decided  that  such 
a  step  would  have  been  undignified  and  useless. 
To  distract  his  mind  I  took  him  out  shooting  and 
visiting,  and  also  conducted  him  round  some  of 
the  great  Alabama  cotton  factories  and  grist-mills, 
in  which  he  took  a  lively  interest.  We  then  went 
over  to  Birmingham,  Alabama,  to  inspect  the  vast 
coal  and  iron  fields  which  were  then  being  developed 


8o        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

there.  As  he  had  some  money  invested  in  Vir- 
ginian coalfields,  he  went  into  every  detail  of  the 
methods  of  production  with  the  keenest  attention. 
By  then  he  appeared  to  have  pretty  well  got 
over  the  shock  occasioned  by  the  abrupt  termina- 
tion of  his  engagement,  but  his  attitude  towards 
women  for  many  years  afterwards  was  a  cold  and 
even  suspicious  one. 

A  Visit  to  Miss  Woods. 

In  1880,  when  Charley  was  at  the  height  of  his 
fame,  my  sister  Theodosia  (Mrs.  Paget)  and 
myself  happened  to  be  in  Newport  on  a  summer 
holiday.  We  heard  that  Miss  Woods,  who  had 
in  the  meantime  married  a  rich  American,  was 
living  at  a  villa  just  outside  the  town.  Theodosia 
had  met  her  in  Paris  during  the  days  of  Charley's 
courtship,  and  one  day  she  said  to  me:  **  Come 
and  let  us  call  on  Charley's  old  sweetheart."  I 
said,  "  Well,  we  will,"  and  we  made  our  way  to 
the  villa. 

When  we  arrived,  she  was  in  and  welcomed  us 
in  the  drawing-room.  She  was  still  very  pretty, 
charmingly  dressed,  and  vivacious  in  manner. 

She  talked  rapidly,  evidently  rendered  some- 
what nervous  by  the  memories  which  we  aroused. 
Suddenly  she  said:  "Do  tell  me  how  is  your  great 
brother  Charles.  How  famous  he  has  become!" 
She  stopped  and  sighed  for  a  moment,  and  seemed 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  8i 

almost  bursting  into  tears,  then  suddenly  cried, 
as  if  from  the  bottom  of  her  heart:  "  Oh,  why  did 
I  not  marry  him  ?  How  happy  we  should  have 
been  together !"  We  talked  in  general  terms 
about  Charley  for  a  little  time,  and  then  we  left, 
never  to  see  her  again. 

I  always  consider  it  to  be  a  striking  coincidence 
that  Charley's  first  real  love  affair  was  with  a  Miss 
Woods,  while  the  maiden  name  of  Mrs.  O'Shea, 
to  whom  he  was  finally  married,  was  Miss  Katha- 
rine Wood. 


CHAPTER  III 
CHARLEY   IN   AMERICA 

A  Visit  to  Alabama. 

Charley's  first  visit  to  America,  to  which  I  have 
only  briefly  referred  in  connection  with  his  love 
affair,  merits  a  more  detailed  description,  showing 
as  it  does  the  development  of  his  character  at 
what  was  really  the  critical  part  of  his  life.  When 
I  got  the  message  saying  that  he  was  coming  over 
to  see  me,  I  was  hard  at  work  on  my  plantation  at 
West  Point,  Alabama.  On  the  day  of  his  arrival 
I  had  gone  out  partridge-shooting  after  breakfast, 
and  had  made  a  very  good  bag,  when  I  suddenly 
felt  that  I  ought  to  return,  although  I  had  not 
arranged  to  do  so  until  the  evening.  On  getting 
near  the  house,  I  saw  a  buggy  with  two  gentle- 
men in  it  drive  up  to  my  gate.  I  hurried  up,  and 
found  that  it  was  Charley  himself  and  a  friend  of 
mine,  Mr.  Lanier. 

They  were  both  very  hungry,  and  I  told  Mrs. 
Mema,  my  housekeeper,  to  hurry  up  and  get  some 
dinner  for  them.  She  killed  a  cock  and  cooked  it, 
but  it  proved  to  be  a  "  fine  tough  bird,"  as  Charley 
expressed  it.     Charley,  however,  had  nothing  but 

82 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  83 

praise  for  our  home-made  cakes,  honey,  and 
hominy,  and  over  the  coffee  we  had  a  good  chat 
until  it  was  time  for  Mr.  Lanier  to  return  to  West 
Point,  from  where  he  had  driven  Charley  over. 

The  two  of  us  then  had  a  long  walk  through  my 
cotton  plantation  and  peach  orchards.  He  seemed 
greatly  surprised  at  the  large  tract  of  land  under 
cultivation,  and  the  way  in  which  I  controlled 
the  negroes.  Everything  in  the  South  was  strange 
to  him,  and  the  negroes  and  the  rough  set  of 
white  people  with  whom  he  came  in  contact  puzzled 
him  a  great  deal  at  first.  He  did  not  seem  to  like 
the  negroes,  and  thought  that  the  life  generally 
was  unfit  for  me;  but  I  told  him  that  I  liked  it, 
as  it  gave  me  a  healthy  and  paying  occupation, 
though  he,  of  course,  had  got  his  own  beautiful 
Avondale  and  plenty  to  do  on  the  estate. 

I  did  my  best  to  make  him  comfortable,  and 
gave  him  a  nice  room  next  to  my  own,  with  a  com- 
munication door  between,  as  I  knew,  of  old  that 
he  was  subject  to  nervous  attacks  and  used  to 
walk  in  his  sleep.  He  told  me  that  he  disliked 
the  Southern  cooking,  because  it  was  so  greasy, 
and  he  seemed  to  be  glad  when  I  told  him  that  I 
also  disliked  greasy  food.  Still,  he  appeared  very 
soon  to  accommodate  himself  to  the  life. 

He  spent  three  weeks  with  me.  We  used  to  do 
a  lot  of  partridge-shooting,  and  visited  all  the  mills 
and  cotton  factories  in  the  neighbourhood,  in 
which  he  took  a  great  deal  of  interest.     One  day 


84        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

he  came  over  with  me  to  see  Mr,  Terry  Collins' s 
grist-mill,  which  was  run  by  water-power.  After 
examining  the  turbine  wheel  for  some  time,  he 
asked  Mr.  Collins  to  take  a  certain  part  of  it  out 
to  show  him.  This  could  not  be  done  without 
stopping  the  mill,  which  Mr.  Collins  refused  to  do, 
much  to  Charley's  disappointment,  as  he  was  used 
to  having  his  slightest  whim  obeyed. 

For  exercise,  Charley  used  to  ride  my  black 
mare  Fanny  (named  after  my  sister)  into  the 
town,  which  was  about  seven  miles  away,  in  order 
to  fetch  my  mail  and  also  his  own,  in  which  he 
took  a  great  deal  of  interest,  as  he  was  then  trans- 
acting a  lot  of  business  with  New  York. 

An  Altercation. 

On  one  of  his  trips  heavy  rains  had  fallen,  so 
that  the  mud  was  several  inches  deep,  rendering 
it  impossible  to  distinguish  the  footpath  from  the 
road.  On  entering  the  town,  Charley  dismounted, 
and,  leading  his  horse  along  the  path,  made  his 
way  towards  the  post  -  office.  Presently  the 
Marshal  (Chief  of  Police)  came  up  to  him,  and  told 
him  to  take  the  horse  off  the  side-walk.  My 
brother's  proud  spirit  keenly  resented  this  inter- 
ference. He  calmly  surveyed  the  man,  and  said 
coldly:  "  I  might  do  so  if  you  could  show  me  which 
is  the  path  and  which  is  the  road.  Personally 
I  can  see  no  difference  "     He  then  made  his  way 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  85 

towards  the  post-office,  but  the  Marshal  followed 
and  continued  the  argument,  which  became  more 
and  more  heated.  Finally  the  Marshal  said  he 
would  have  to  fine  him,  and  ordered  him  to  come 
to  the  police-room.  Charley  replied  that  he  would 
do  so  when  he  had  fetched  the  mail. 

"  Whose  mail  ?"  asked  the  Marshal. 

"My  brother's  —  Mr.  John  Parnell's,"  said 
Charley  curtly,  whereupon  the  Marshal,  to 
Charley's  amazement,  seized  both  his  hands, 
shaking  them  heartily,  and  cried:  "  Go  ahead;  we 
all  know  Mr.  Parnell,  and  are  fond  of  him.  I  am 
proud  to  meet  you,  and  would  not  hurt  a  hair  of 
your  head." 

They  both  adjourned  to  Pat  Gibbons's,  where 
I  always  used  to  dine  and  put  up  my  horse,  Pat 
being  an  old  Irishman  and  a  thorough  good  fellow. 
There  he  was  cordially  welcomed,  and  he  and  the 
Marshal  parted  the  best  of  friends.  Charley,  on 
his  return,  said :  "  They  seem  queer  folk  about  here, 
John,  and  I  might  have  finished  by  being  shot 
if  they  hadn't  happened  to  have  known  our  name." 

The  Marshal  in  after  -  years,  when  Charley's 
name  was  famous  throughout  the  world,  used 
often  to  relate  this  little  adventure  with  great 
pride. 

I  introduced  Charley  to  Mr.  Matt  Hill,  uncle  of 
the  celebrated  Senator  Hill  of  Georgia,  and  they 
had  many  lively  discussions  together  over  the 
war.     Charley's    sympathies    had    hitherto    been 


86        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

entirely  for  the  North,  but  Mr.  Hill,  who  was  a 
Southerner,  succeeded  in  modifying  his  views. 

Senator  Hill,  Charley,  and  myself,  used  often 
to  go  out  shooting  on  Colonel  Chambers's  planta- 
tion, taking  my  old  dog  "  Drink  "  with  us.  Poor 
**  Drink  "  had  met  with  an  accident,  and  had  had 
his  shoulder  put  out,  so  that  he  was  a  bit  slow  for 
Charley,  who  liked  speed  in  sport  as  in  everything 
else.  On  one  occasion  he  lost  his  temper  and 
levelled  his  gun  at  the  dog,  saying  that  he  would 
shoot  him,  but  I  managed  to  persuade  him  not 
to  do  so.  After  that  the  dog  behaved  splendidly, 
and  Charley  got  quite  to  like  him. 

On  our  return  from  shooting  we  got  caught  in  a 
sudden  cyclone.  Such  was  its  force  that  it  quite 
took  our  breath  away,  and  I  had  to  let  go  the  reins 
and  allow  the  horse  to  get  on  as  best  he  could 
himself.  After  a  fierce  spell,  the  stoim  ceased  as 
suddenly  as  it  had  begun,  and  we  found  ourselves 
as  dry  as  we  were  before,  as  the  rain  had  driven 
against  us  with  such  force  that  it  had  not  time 
to  settle  on  our  clothes. 


How  THE  Pigs  triumphed. 

One  night  we  were  awakened  by  the  grunting  of 
a  number  of  pigs  under  the  house,  which,  as  is 
usual  in  the  South,  was  built  on  piles  about  five 
feet  high,  leaving  an  open  space  which  was  pro- 
tected by  lattice-work.     Apparently  some  of  the 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  87 

pigs  belonging  to  Ran,  my  "  boss  "  nigger,  had 
escaped,  and  had  broken  through  the  lattice-work 
in  order  to  keep  themselves  warm  in  the  recesses 
under  the  house. 

I  heard  Charley's  voice  from  the  adjoining 
room  crying:  "  I  say,  John,  I  can't  sleep  with  that 
infernal  noise." 

"  Well,  Charley,"  I  replied,  being  rather  more 
used  to  such  occurrences,  "  why  don't  you  get  up 
and  take  my  gun  and  have  a  shot  at  them  ?" 

Charley  jumped  out  of  bed,  picked  up  the  gun, 
and  ran  out  in  his  nightshirt,  firing  a  shot  under 
the  house  in  the  direction  from  which  the  noise 
came.  The  result  was  that  the  terrified  animals 
came  rushing  out,  and  upset  him,  gun  and  all,  in 
the  mud.  When  he  returned  and  came  into  my 
room  to  relate  his  adventures,  I  couldn't  help 
laughing  at  the  disreputable  appearance  he  pre- 
sented. The  gun  was  so  clogged  with  mud  that 
we  had  to  set  to  work  to  clean  it  before  going  to 
bed. 

A  few  days  later  the  negro  told  me  that  one  of 
the  pigs  was  missing,  and  we  were  soon  able  to 
locate  him  owing  to  a  very  strong  odour  permeating 
through  the  floor  of  the  house.  When  we  set  to 
work  to  search,  we  discovered  that  Charley's  shot 
had  killed  one  of  the  pigs,  which  we  had  removed 
to  a  decent  burial-place. 

Charley  used  often  to  relate  this  story  with 
great  gusto  in  after-days  in  Avondale. 


88        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

There  resided  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  road 
a  cotton-planter  and  his  wife,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  FeUx 
Shank.  They  were  very  pleasant  people,  and  the 
husband  was  a  highly  educated  man  who  took 
a  great  deal  of  interest  in  the  country  and  held 
an  influential  position.  I  took  Charley  over  one 
night  to  see  them,  and  in  the  course  of  a  very 
enjoyable  evening  the  conversation  turned  on  the 
Alabama  coal  and  iron  fields,  which  were  then 
being  developed  in  a  small  way  by  a  number  of 
poor  but  energetic  men.  Charley  became  greatly 
interested  in  the  subject,  especially  as  he  had  just 
invested  a  good  deal  of  the  profits  arising  from  his 
timber  at  Avondale  in  the  Clover  Hill  coal-mine 
of  Virginia. 

After  discussing  the  matter  on  several  occasions, 
he  said:  **  John,  let's  go  over  and  see  some  of  these 
new  fields,  as  I  am  deeply  interested  in  coal- 
mining, and  the  coalfields  are  on  the  way  to  New 
Orleans,  where  I  am  going  down  to  see  my 
Parisian  friend,  Mr.  Cliphart." 


CHAPTER  IV 

ADVENTURES  IN  THE  COALFIELDS 

A  FEW  days  later  Charley  and  I  left  West  Point 
Station  on  the  Alabama  and  Montgomery  Rail- 
way, which  connected  at  Montgomery  with  the 
line  then  known  as  the  North  and  South  Railway. 
At  Montgomery  we  changed  for  Birmingham,  the 
centre  of  the  coal  and  iron  fields,  where  we  arrived 
after  a  very  long  and  tedious  journey. 

On  the  way  we  passed  the  Cahawba  coalfield, 
which  was  the  first  to  be  opened  in  the  district, 
as  it  was  on  the  earliest  section  of  railway. 

The  quality  of  coal,  however,  was  not  very 
good,  it  being  too  sulphuric.  When  we  stopped  at 
Cahawba  Station,  Charley  got  out  and  asked  the 
people  a  number  of  questions  about  the  new  coal- 
field and  its  prospects.  He  was  asked  his  name, 
and  was  glad  to  find  again  that  it  was  recognized. 

Birmingham  was  at  that  time  a  small,  insig- 
nificant village  built  of  wooden  houses,  but,  like 
every  village  in  America,  dignified  with  the  title 
of  city.  It  had  one  small,  dirty  wooden  hotel, 
full  of  adventurers  who  had  come  there  in  the 
hope  of  getting  work  on  the  railroad  and  mines. 
The  hotel  was  a  miserable  place  and  very  crowded, 

89 


go        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

and  we  were  constantly  in  dread  of  having  five 
or  six  not  too  cleanly  strangers  sleeping  in  the 
same  room. 

Charley  was  thoroughly  disgusted  with  this 
mode  of  living,  as  he  had  always  been  accustomed 
to  the  best  of  everything,  and  did  not  relish  sitting 
down  to  dinner  with  a  very  ruffianly-looking 
crowd,  though  I  did  not  mind  them,  as  I  found  by 
experience  that,  though  poor  and  rough,  they  were 
honest  and  upright. 

After  dinner,  which  consisted  of  a  number  of 
small  pieces  of  bacon,  hardly  a  mouthful  apiece, 
I  went  to  look  for  my  hat,  but  found  it  gone,  and 
a  very  shabby-looking  article  left  in  its  place. 
Remembering  the  old  days  at  Avondale,  when 
Charley  used  to  run  off  with  my  new  hats  and 
leave  his  old  ones  for  me  to  take,  I  had  no  hesita- 
tion on  this  occasion  in  appropriating  his.  How- 
ever, I  went  down  to  the  village  and  bought  a 
new  one.  This  made  Charley  and  myself  very 
careful  indeed  about  hanging  up  our  hats  when  we 
went  in  to  meals,  and  we  usually  brought  them  up 
to  our  room. 

I  remembered  that  a  former  West  Point  neigh- 
bour, Mr.  Read,  had  gone  to  live  at  Birmingham, 
and  we  went  and  hunted  him  up.  He  was  very 
glad  to  see  us,  and  promised  to  introduce  us  to 
Colonel  Powell,  the  pioneer  of  Birmingham,  a 
wealthy  and  prominent  citizen,  to  whom  the 
original  development  of  the  coalfields  was  due. 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  9I 

Charle}^,  owing  to  his  proud  disposition,was  greatly 
afraid  of  being  mistaken  for  the  usual  Irish 
emigrant,  the  only  class  of  our  countrymen  who 
were  to  be  found  in  these  parts,  and  before  we  went 
round  to  Colonel  Powell  he  said  to  me:  "For 
God's  sake,  John,  when  we  see  Colonel  Powell, 
don't  tell  him  we  are  from  Ireland,  as  they  have 
never  seen  a  real  Irish  gentleman,  and  wouldn't 
know  one  if  they  did,  so  that  I  would  not  be  likely 
to  get  the  information  I  want."  However,  it  was 
already  known  that  we  had  come  over  from 
Ireland,  though  that  did  not  seem  to  do  us  much 
harm. 

Colonel  Powell  (whom  I  met  again  with  his 
family  in  Italy  during  the  following  year)  was  an 
educated  and  travelled  man,  and,  as  we  soon 
learned,  quite  recognized  the  difference  between 
the  Irish  emigrant  and  the  capitalist  seeking  in- 
vestments. He  received  us  very  cordially,  and 
talked  to  me  for  some  time  about  my  fruit-growing. 
He  introduced  us  to  a  Mr.  Dunne,  of  Irish  extrac- 
tion, who  had  been  in  America  a  long  time,  and 
was  thoroughly  conversant  with  the  conditions 
of  the  coalfields  and  the  people  working  them, 
seeing  that  he  owned  the  first  coal-pit  in  that  part 
of  the  country.  Mr.  Dunne's  home  was  about 
forty  miles  from  Birmingham,  close  to  the  cele- 
brated Warrior  coalfield,  and  he  promised  to  take 
us  over  his  original  coal-mine. 

We  left  Birmingham  by  an  early  train  for  the 


92        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

Warrior  coalfield,  and  on  the  way  over  the  Great 
Warrior  River  saw  the  coal  cropping  out  of  the 
banks  of  the  river  as  we  crossed  it  by  the  railway 
bridge.  We  got  off  on  the  other  side  of  the  river, 
having  told  the  conductor  to  stop  the  train  near 
Mr.  Dunne's  house,  as  there  was  no  station  there. 
We  had  supper  at  Mr.  Dunne's,  and  after  a  chat 
with  the  family  went  to  bed.  At  breakfast 
Mr.  Dunne  described  to  us  the  pioneer  mine,  which 
is  now  one  of  the  biggest  in  the  South. 


A  Mine  worked  by  Dentists. 

But,  to  Charley's  amazement,  and  at  first  in- 
credulity, Mr.  Dunne  told  us  that  the  mine  was 
only  worked  at  that  time  by  three  Birmingham 
dentists,  all  poor  men,  whose  only  capital  con- 
sisted in  pulling  out  enough  teeth  from  the  negroes 
to  provide  for  the  work  in  the  mine  day  by  day. 
At  the  same  time  they  kept  an  English  engineer 
to  superintend  the  works,  though  all  his  remunera- 
tion, like  theirs,  was  dependent  upon  the  future 
profits  of  the  mine. 

After  breakfast  Charley  and  Mr.  Dunne  and 
myself  started  on  a  tour  of  inspection.  Charley 
wanted  first  to  see  the  bridge  over  the  Warrior 
River,  which  he  noticed,  with  his  invariable 
aptitude  for  observing  detail,  was  one  of  a  new 
design,  and  he  wished  to  adapt  the  idea  of  the 
covering  of  the  bridge  for  a  roof  which  he  pur- 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  93 

posed  constructing  at  his  new  sawmills  at  Avon- 
dale.  He  asked  us  to  walk  across  the  bridge 
before  going  to  the  coal-mines. 

To  cross  it  was  a  most  difficult  feat,  as  we  had 
to  walk  on  loose,  rickety  planks  in  the  middle  of 
the  track,  and  if  we  had  slipped  we  should  have 
been  hurled  hundreds  of  feet  below  into  the  deep, 
swiftly-flowing  Warrior  River.  As  we  went  across, 
Charley  caught  hold  of  my  hand,  and  we  made 
our  way  carefully  and  safely  to  the  other  side. 
After  crossing  the  bridge,  Charley  went  back  alone 
to  the  middle  of  it  in  order  to  make  a  sketch  of 
the  roof.  He  left  Mr.  Dunne  and  myself  to  watch 
at  the  end  of  the  bridge  for  approaching  trains, 
and  we  agreed  to  warn  him  of  danger  by  the  waving 
of  a  handkerchief.  All  of  a  sudden,  when  Charley 
had  nearly  finished  his  sketch,  we  saw  a  long 
freight-train  approaching  the  bridge — luckily,  at 
a  very  slow  speed.  We  had  barely  time  to  give 
Charley  the  warning  signal,  and  get  him  back 
to  safety,  before  the  train  reached  the  bridge. 
If  he  had  been  overtaken  halfway  across,  nothing 
could  have  saved  him,  as  there  was  not  even  a 
handrail  for  him  to  cling  to  while  the  train  was 
passing. 

After  Charley  had  completed  his  sketch,  we 
recrossed  the  bridge  and  walked  up  to  the  mine, 
which  was  only  a  small  opening  in  the  hill,  close 
to  the  railway  track,  not  bigger  than  an  ordinary- 
sized  room,  the  seam  of  coal  being  pretty  level  with 


94        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

the  hill.  We  made  the  acquaintance  of  the 
English  engineer^  Mr.  Shaw,  and  one  of  the  dentist 
proprietors  of  the  mine. 

Mr.  Shaw  asked  us  to  spend  the  night  at  his 
house  until  the  train  passed  for  Birmingham. 
After  a  hearty  backwoods  supper,  we  slept  until 
it  was  time  to  go  back  to  the  track  and  meet  the 
train.  We  brought  a  lantern  with  us,  which  we 
waved  to  call  the  attention  of  the  engineer,  who 
stopped  to  pick  us  up. 

We  got  to  Birmingham  early  in  the  morning, 
and  after  breakfast  took  a  long  walk  to  inspect 
the  immense  mountains  of  pure  iron  ore,  Charley 
observing  that  the  close  proximity  of  the  coal  and 
the  iron  made  the  place  doubly  valuable.  We  had 
a  delightful  walk  through  the  great  forest,  with  the 
pine-trees  sighing  over  our  heads,  and  the  delight- 
ful perfume  of  resin  pervading  everything,  a  scent 
that  Charley  was  always  fond  of,  saying  that  there 
was  no  life  so  healthy  as  that  spent  among  the 
pine-trees. 

Charley  was  now  most  anxious  to  invest  £3,000 
in  the  new  coal-mine,  as  he  evidently  foresaw  the 
great  future  that  existed  for  this  virgin  country. 
Before  leaving  Birmingham  he  made  arrange- 
ments to  return  there  again  after  he  had  paid 
his  promised  visit  to  Mr.  Cliphart  at  New 
Orleans. 

After  seeing  everything  of  interest  and  looking 
fully   into   the   coal   and   iron   business,   we  left 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  95 

Birmingham  for  Montgomery  Junction,  where 
Charley  changed  for  New  Orleans,  while  I  went 
on  to  West  Point. 

After  this  I  remained  at  home,  marketing  my 
cotton  crop  and  preparing  to  wind  up  my 
American  business  before  going  back  to  Ireland 
with  Charley. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  RAILWAY  ACCIDENT 

A  Presentiment. 

About  two  weeks  after  Charley  had  left  for  New 
Orleans,  I  received  a  telegram  from  him,  telling 
me  to  catch  the  midday  train  from  West  Point  to 
Birmingham  next  day,  and  meet  him  at  Mont- 
gomery. I  did  not  notice  the  date  of  the  telegram, 
taking  it  for  granted  that  it  had  been  sent  on  the 
morning  of  the  day  I  received  it.  Somehow,  a 
presentiment  will  often  come  to  me  very  strongly 
at  times,  and  it  was  especially  so  the  day  I  re- 
ceived this  wire.  I  felt  that  something  dreadful 
was  going  to  happen,  not  to  me,  but  to  Charley, 
if  he  went  to  Birmingham  by  himself.  Why  I 
could  not  tell,  as  he  had  been  travelling  by  himself 
for  a  considerable  time;  but,  still,  the  feeling  of 
coming  disaster  haunted  me,  until  it  took  full 
possession  of  my  mind. 

However,  I  set  off  next  morning  by  the  twelve 
o'clock  train.  I  do  not  know  how  long  it  was  that 
I  walked  up  and  down  the  platform  at  West  Point 
before  the  train  left,  trying  to  make  up  my  mind 

whether  to  go  or  not.     I  did  not  want  to  go,  as 

96 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  97 

I  was  sure  that  a  catastrophe  was  impending,  but 
something  kept  on  telHng  me:  "If  I  do  not  go, 
Charley  will  be  killed."  As  I  did  not  know  any- 
body at  Montgomery  Junction  Station  to  whom 
I  could  telegraph  to  tell  Charley  that  I  was  not 
going,  I  started,  greatly  against  my  will. 

On  arriving  at  the  junction,  my  train  pulled 
up  on  one  side  of  the  platform,  and  exactly  at  the 
same  time  (reminding  me  of  our  experience  at 
Chipping  Norton  when  boys)  the  New  Orleans  train, 
in  which  I  expected  Charley,  drew  up  at  the 
opposite  side.  The  sleeping-car  of  the  New 
Orleans  train  had  to  be  transferred  to  the  North 
and  South  train,  which  went  to  Birmingham.  I 
stepped  out  of  my  car,  and,  immediately  I  did 
so,  saw  Charley  come  out  of  the  sleeper,  face  to 
face  with  me. 

Directly  he  caught  sight  of  me  he  appeared 
dumbfounded,  and  cried:  "  Hello,  John,  I  did  not 
expect  to  see  you  to-day  !  Have  you  been  waiting 
for  me  since  yesterday,  when  I  asked  you  to  meet 
me  ?"  It  was  now  my  turn  to  look  astonished,  and 
I  showed  him  the  wire  I  had  received.  He  said: 
"  You  ought  to  have  received  that  the  day  before." 

The  mystery  of  our  meeting  impressed  us  both, 
and  Charley  evidently  did  not  like  it  at  all. 

I  had  come  up  from  West  Point  with  a  friend  of 
mine.  Dr.  Pierce.  I  introduced  him  to  Charley, 
who  decided  to  leave  his  sleeper  and  join  us  in  our 
day-car — a  most  lucky  occurrence  for  him,  as  it 

7 


98        CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

turned  out.  Charley  and  the  doctor  sat  down 
next  to  the  door,  opposite  the  stove,  while  I  took 
a  seat  in  front  of  them,  so  as  to  join  in  the  con- 
versation. They  started  talking  about  the  great 
future  of  the  coalfields,  but  as  we  went  along 
we  kept  noticing  the  curious  way  in  which  the 
engineer  overran  his  train  past  every  station, 
having  to  back  into  the  platform.  We  concluded 
that  this  section  of  the  line,  which  had  not  long 
been  finished,  was  new  to  him. 


A  Negro's  Prophecy. 

When  we  were  not  very  far  from  Birmingham, 
Charley,  who  had  noticed  the  overrunning  of  the 
train,  started  to  tell  Dr.  Pierce  and  myself  a 
curious  incident  which  had  occurred  to  him  when 
on  his  way  from  seeing  his  friend,  Mr.  Cliphart,  at 
New  Orleans.  A  negro,  who  was  seeing  the  people 
off  the  boat  across  the  gang-plank,  turned  to  him 
and  said:  "  You  are  getting  off,  and  will  be  killed.'* 
Charley  said  that  he  felt  like  kicking  him  into 
the  bay.  But,  strange  to  say,  after  that  he  felt 
very  much  as  I  did — that  something  was  going  to 
happen. 

The  Accident. 

Suddenly,  as  he  was  talking  in  this  way,  the 
train  jumped  the  track,  tearing  up  the  rails  with 
a  terrible  jar,  and,  as  I  afterwards  learned,  pitched 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  99 

down  a  very  high  bank,  and  turned  upside  down 
with  the  wheels  on  top. 

When  the  train  first  bumped  and  rocked  as  it 
left  the  metals,  I  remember  taking  hold  of  both 
sides  of  the  seat  to  keep  my  balance,  as  I  did  not 
know  what  was  going  to  happen  next.  The  last 
thing  I  remember  was  seeing  the  stove  topple 
over,  after  which  I  became  unconscious. 

Charley  afterwards  told  me  that  when  the  train 
jumped  the  track  he  tried  to  leap  out  of  the  car, 
but  as  he  got  up  the  train  was  turning  over,  and 
his  coat  got  caught  in  the  hat-rack,  suspending 
him  there  and  breaking  his  fall,  and  also,  which 
was  perhaps  as  well,  preventing  him  from  jumping 
out.  He  said  that  when  he  realized  that  the  train 
was  running  off  the  line  he  was  sure  that  he  was 
going  to  be  killed,  and  that  the  negro's  prophecy 
was  coming  true.  Even  if  he  had  succeeded  in 
gaining  the  door  and  jumping  out,  the  train  would 
most  likely  have  fallen  on  him  and  killed  him; 
and  if  he  had  remained  in  the  sleeping-car  nothing 
could  have  saved  him,  as  it  caught  fire  and  was 
burnt  to  a  cinder.  Fortunately,  there  was  no  one 
in  the  sleeper  except  the  porter,  who,  being  awake, 
succeeded  in  making  his  escape. 

I  was  then  unconscious,  but  Charley  told  me 
afterwards  that,  once  the  accident  occurred,  all 
was  in  darkness,  the  doors  were  jammed  and 
broken  and  the  windows  smashed.  With  the 
exception  of  the  baggage  car,  mail  cars,  and  engine, 


100      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

the  train  was  scattered,  wheels  up,  the  tops  of  the 
cars  being  embedded  in  the  ground.  As  the  door 
was  jammed,  Dr.  Pierce,  Charley,  and  the  other 
passengers,  got  out  through  the  top  of  the  broken 
window.  When  they  had  got  out,  they  missed 
me,  and  Charley  turned  to  Dr.  Pierce  and  cried: 
**  Oh,  where  is  my  brother  ?  He  must  be  still  in 
the  car." 

Charley  Rescues  me. 

After  all  the  people  who  were  able  to  do  so  had 
got  out  of  the  car,  Charley  crawled  back  in  search 
of  me.  He  finally  found  me  in  the  darkness, 
lying  on  the  floor  as  if  dead.  He  cried  out  to 
Dr.  Pierce:  **  Oh,  doctor,  I  have  escaped,  but  I 
fear  my  poor  brother  is  either  badly  hurt  or 
killed !" 

They  took  hold  of  me  and  dragged  me  out 
through  the  window,  and  then  carried  me  to  a 
little  farmhouse  near  to  the  track.  I  did  not 
recover  consciousness  until  I  found  myself  in  a 
room  lying  on  a  bed,  while  a  number  of  people 
were  stretched  on  the  floor,  bleeding  and  moaning. 

All  of  a  sudden  I  realized  that  Charley  was  not 
there,  and,  although  badly  stunned,  I  was  seized 
with  a  terror  that  he  might  be  killed,  as  I  slowly 
recalled,  sitting  up  dazed  in  bed,  my  feelings  since 
I  received  the  telegram,  and  also  Charley's  in- 
cident with  the  negro.  I  found  that  my  neck 
and  head  hurt  frightfully,  owing  to  my  having 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  loi 

been  dashed  against  the  top  of  the  car;  but  I 
struggled  out  of  bed  and  staggered  forth  in  search 
of  Charley  and  Dr.  Pierce.  When  I  got  out  into 
the  yard,  I  found  my  brother  stretched  full  length 
on  a  grass  plot.  I  hurried  to  him,  fearing  that 
he  was  dead;  but  when  I  approached  he  raised 
himself  on  his  elbow,  and  said:'*'  I  hope  you  are 
not  so  bad  as  when  we  brought  you  here.  I  believe 
I  have  received  some  internal  injury." 

He  recalled  the  negro's  prophecy,  and  said  that 
he  had  had  a  narrow  escape  from  its  being  ful- 
filled. However,  he  seemed  much  more  concerned 
about  my  injuries  than  his  own. 

As  the  accident  had  occurred  some  distance 
from  any  station,  the  engine  was  sent  on  ahead  for 
help.  It  returned  with  a  baggage  car  containing 
some  doctors,  and  we  were  all  placed  in  it  and 
brought  on  to  Birmingham,  except  one  unfor- 
tunate man,  who  was  found  to  be  already  dead. 
I  remember  that  Charley  during  the  journey  to 
Birmingham  was  looking  very  pale,  and,  like 
the  rest  of  the  injured,  lay  down  on  the  floor  of 
the  car.  Strange  to  say,  I  was  the  only  one  able 
to  sit  up,  although  my  neck  was  getting  worse 
and  worse  every  moment. 

On  arrival  at  Birmingham,  we  were  all  taken  to 
the  little  wooden  hotel  where  Charley  and  I  had 
stopped  a  couple  of  weeks  before. 

When  we  got  out  of  the  train,  I  appeared  to  be 
less  hurt  than  anybody,  and  the  people  waiting 


102      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

on  the  platform  crowded  round  me,  and  asked  me 
questions  as  to  how  the  accident  had  occurred. 
When  the  doctors  came  to  me,  I  remember  show- 
ing them  my  hand,  the  fingers  of  which  were 
broken,  and  telhng  them  that  my  neck  hurt  me. 
After  they  had  examined  me,  one  of  the  doctors 
said:  "  Never  mind  about  your  hand;  your  head 
and  neck  are  seriously  injured,  and  you  must  go 
to  bed  immediately." 

I  was  quite  surprised,  as  I  did  not  think  I  was 
so  badly  hurt ;  but  I  went  to  the  same  little  room 
in  which  Charley  and  I  had  slept  before,  and  got 
into  my  bed,  which  I  did  not  leave  again  for  over 
a  month.  My  neck  turned  out  to  be  indeed  very 
badly  hurt,  and  the  doctors  said  that  if  Charley 
had  received  the  same  injuries  it  would  have 
killed  him  on  the  spot,  as  it  would  nine  out  of  ten 
persons. 

A  Tender  Nurse. 

I  was  obliged  to  have  my  head  supported 
b}'^  cardboard  bandages  for  a  month  to  come. 
Charley  was  the  only  nurse  I  had,  though  he  also 
was  suffering  from  his  injuries.  He  attended  to 
my  wants  better  and  more  tenderly  than  any 
woman  could  have  done,  and  was  most  anxious 
about  me,  never  leaving  me  even  to  attend  to 
his  coal  investment  business.  All  that  he  was 
anxious  about  was  to  get  me  safely  home  to 
Ireland,    though    he    was    still    in    negotiations 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  103 

about  his  £3,000  investment.  We  had  to  sleep 
together  in  the  same  small  bed,  which  was  much 
too  small  for  both  of  us,  especially  under  the 
circumstances. 

We  had  nobody  to  wait  on  us,  but  at  times 
friends  used  to  come  and  see  us  and  keep  us 
company,  for  which  we  were  heartily  grateful. 
Among  them  were  Miss  Callaghan,  who  was  a  friend 
of  mine  at  West  Point,  and  Father  Galvin,  an 
Irish  priest  related  to  the  Father  Galvin  of  Rath- 
drum  who  in  after-days  used  to  assist  Charley 
during  his  political  fights.  Everyone  showed  us 
the  utmost  kindness,  and  we  made  many  new 
friends,  none  of  whom,  however,  realized  that  my 
pale-faced  nurse,  himself  suffering  though  un- 
complaining, was  a  few  years  later  to  become 
the  world-renowned  champion  of  Irish  liberty. 

Abortive  Negotiations. 

When  I  was  well  on  the  road  to  recovery, 
Charley  used  to  take  trips  to  the  Warrior  coalfield, 
especially  to  inspect  the  suspensory  work  of  the 
roof  of  the  bridge,  in  which  he  seemed  to  take 
an  absorbing  interest.  I  used  to  be  very  nervous 
about  his  safety  during  his  absence,  picturing 
him  alone  in  that  dangerous  spot,  but  he  returned 
safely  every  evening. 

He  told  me  that  he  had  made  no  arrangements 
yet  with  the  owners  of  the  coal-mines,  but  had 


104      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

asked  them  to  draw  up  a  partnership  agreement 
and  bring  it  round  to  the  hotel. 

As  soon  as  I  was  well  enough,  Charley  appointed 
a  day  for  the  owners  of  the  coal-mine  to  meet  in 
our  bedroom  at  the  hotel,  and  conclude  the  agree- 
ment for  him  to  become  a  part  owner  in  the  mines 
on  introducing  a  capital  of  £3,000.  I  advised  him 
to  go  into  it,  and  also  to  buy  up  a  large  tract  of  the 
Long  Leaf  pine-lands,  close  to  the  coal-mines,  under 
which  I  believed  that  the  coal-seam  stretched. 
The  purchase  money  for  the  pine-lands  was  only 
one  dollar  per  acre,  and  of  this  only  ten  cents  per 
acre  had  to  be  paid  in  cash  down,  the  remainder 
being  payable  in  instalments  extending  over 
several  years.  I  pointed  out  that,  quite  apart 
from  the  coal,  the  timber  on  these  lands 
would  have  repaid  Charley  handsomely.  In 
this,  however,  as  in  all  other  matters,  he  pre- 
ferred to  follow  his  own  view  uninfluenced  by 
anyone  else. 

The  owners,  when  they  came  to  our  bedroom 
(I  was  still  in  bed),  brought  with  them  an  agree- 
ment ready  for  Charley  to  sign.  After  reading  it 
over  carefully,  he  said  it  would  not  do  at  all,  as, 
although  he  was  advancing  all  the  capital,  he 
was  not  getting  complete  control.  He  made  it 
quite  clear  that  the  future  of  the  mine  depended 
upon  the  capital  provided  to  work  it,  and  that  it 
was  essential  that  he  should  have  full  manage- 
ment. 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  105 

Anyhow,  after  a  prolonged  argument,  in  which 
neither  side  would  give  way,  the  whole  scheme 
fell  through,  and  the  owners  left. 

The  mine  afterwards,  in  other  hands,  proved  a 
complete  success,  as  it  would  have  done  if  Charley 
had  had  his  way. 

In  a  couple  of  days  I  was  able  to  walk  well 
enough  to  get  back  to  my  plantation  at  West 
Point.  On  arriving  there,  my  people  were  de- 
lighted to  see  us  back  again,  as  the  rumour  had 
got  about  that  I  had  been  killed. 

We  remained  there  for  about  two  weeks,  whilst 
I  disposed  of  my  cotton  crop  and  gradually  re- 
turned to  health.  We  commenced  to  collect  the 
evidence  of  witnesses  with  a  view  to  taking  an 
action  for  damages  against  the  North  and  South 
Railway,  which,  however,  the  lawyers  advised  us 
was  bankrupt.  Finally,  however,  we  decided  to 
abandon  the  suit,  at  any  rate  for  a  time. 


A  Quarrel. 

One  day  while  we  were  at  West  Point,  I  took 
Charley  to  look  at  a  house  which  I  was  building 
for  a  Mr.  Joseph  Field  and  his  wife,  who  were 
farming  part  of  my  land.  Mr.  Field  was  at  home, 
and  Charley  had  a  long  chat  with  him  about  his 
experiences  in  America.  Mr.  Field,  who  was  an 
Ulster  Protestant,  though  his  wife  was  a  Catholic, 
came  back  with  us  to  my  place,  and  there  made 


io6       CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

some  rather  impertinent  remarks  about  the  house 
which  I  was  building  not  being  good  enough 
for  him.  Charley  lost  his  temper,  and  cried: 
**  It  is  too  good  for  you  !"  This  led  to  angry 
words,  and  very  nearly  to  blows,  Charley  having 
actually  taken  off  his  coat  with  the  intention 
of  thrashing  Mr.  Field,  when  I  separated  them. 
I  may  say  that  I  always  found  Mr.  Field  a 
most  respectable  man,  and  got  on  very  well 
with  him. 

The  quarrel  soon  came  to  an  end,  as  quickly 
as  it  had  begun,  and  before  we  reached  home 
perfect  friendship  had  been  restored,  and  we  all 
had  dinner  together.  Mr.  Field  ever  after  used 
to  speak  very  highly  of  Charley,  saying  what 
wonderful  piercing  dark  eyes  he  had. 

We  had  a  couple  of  days'  shooting  before 
leaving  West  Point,  and,  as  Charley  disliked  so 
much  the  greasy  Southern  food,  we  took  with  us 
plenty  of  "  Bob  Whites,"  as  partridges  were  called 
in  that  neighbourhood,  ready-cooked,  to  eat  on 
our  journey  to  New  York. 

On  the  way  we  stopped  at  the  Clover  Hill 
coal-mines  in  Virginia.  As  our  mother,  our  uncle 
Stewart,  and  Charley  himself,  owned  a  number  of 
shares  in  that  mine,  he  thought  it  was  a  good 
opportunity  to  break  his  journey  and  inspect  it. 
The  mine  was  reached  by  a  branch  from  the  main 
line,  the  train  running  at  a  high  speed  on  wooden 
rails,  which  caused  it  to  bump  and  sway  as  if  it 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  107 

was  going  to  jump  the  track.  This,  in  view  of 
our  recent  accident,  made  Charley  distinctly 
nervous,  and  we  went  and  ate  our  cold  partridges 
on  the  steps  of  the  last  car,  so  that  we  could  jump 
off  quickty  if  anything  happened.  I  must  say 
that  the  steps  proved  a  very  uncomfortable  seat, 
especially  as  the  train  was  swaying  about  so  much, 
and  we  were  several  times  nearly  thrown  off. 
However,  Charley  was  still  very  much  haunted  by 
the  negro's  prediction. 

On  arriving  at  Clover  Hill  Station  we  called  at 
the  manager's  house,  and  he  came  out  and  showed 
us  all  over  the  mines. 

Charley  went  down  in  the  cage  of  one  of  the 
principal  shafts,  and  he  told  me  afterwards  that 
he  had  just  as  narrow  an  escape  as  he  had  had  in 
the  railroad  smash,  as  while  he  was  standing  up 
in  the  cage,  being  slightly  bent  owing  to  his  height, 
his  head  was  very  nearly  cut  off  in  one  place 
during  the  descent  by  the  projecting  wall  of  the 
mine.  This  incident  still  further  increased  the 
superstitions  which  had  grown  upon  him  during 
the  last  few  weeks. 

When  he  came  up,  he  described  to  me  the 
geological  formation  of  the  mine.  I  had  always 
been  very  interested  in  the  study  of  geology,  and 
on  hearing  his  description  I  said:  "  That  mine  is 
no  good;  the  coal  in  it  will  soon  give  out  on 
account  of  its  lying  on  the  granite  rock  forma- 
tion,— a    very    unusual    circumstance."     Charley 


io8      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

in  the  early  days  used  to  make  fun  of  my 
geological  knowledge,  though  he  afterwards  set 
to  work  to  study  it  in  earnest  himself.  In 
this  case  my  judgment  proved  to  be  correct, 
for  the  mine  in  after-years  turned  out  to  be 
worthless. 

We  left  Clover  Hill  and  caught  the  train  on  the 
through  line.  In  the  same  sleeper  Charley  met 
Mr.  R.  A.  Lancaster,  his  and  his  uncle's  Wall 
Street  banker  and  broker,  whom  he  knew  very 
well,  and  they  sat  up  most  of  the  night  talking 
finance. 

A  Threatened  Arrest. 

On  arrival  the  next  morning  in  New  York, 
Charley,  who  had  put  up  at  the  Jersey  City  Hotel, 
went  to  see  Mr.  Robinson,  his  attorney,  as  Mr. 
Lancaster  had  informed  him  in  the  train  that  he 
had  been  sued  by  a  Wall  Street  sharper,  who  had 
heard  that  he  had  only  just  come  over  from 
Ireland,  and  had  persuaded  him,  before  going 
South,  to  contract  for  some  shares  in  a  bogus 
company.  This  man  threatened  to  have  him 
arrested  in  order  to  prevent  him  leaving  for 
Ireland,  but  Charley,  on  Mr.  Lancaster's  advice, 
remained  in  Jersey  City,  where  he  could  not  be 
molested. 

After  spending  Christmas  quietly  in  Jersey 
City,  we  left  for  Ireland  on  the  s.s.  City  of  Antwerp, 
on  New  Year's  Day,  1872.     On  the  morning  of  our 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  109 

departure  I  had  to  go  over  to  New  York  City  to 
transact  some  business  for  him,  and  only  got 
to  the  vessel,  after  wading  through  the  snow  up  to 
my  knees,  when  the  gangway  was  just  about  to 
be  drawn  up.  I  found  Charley  hanging  over  the 
rail  in  great  excitement  as  to  whether  I  was  going 
to  miss  the  boat. 


CHAPTER  VI 

BACK  TO  EUROPE 

There  was  little  of  special  interest  in  the  voyage, 
except  one  day  when  we  were  halfway  across. 
The  steamer  stopped  suddenly  for  some  unex- 
plained reason,  though  there  was  no  heavy  sea  or 
wind  at  the  time.  I  was  walking  about  on  deck, 
and  came  across  Charley  leaning  over  the  rail  and 
looking  very  uneasy.  He  asked  me  in  a  nervous 
manner:  "John,  what  has  happened?"  I  said 
I  did  not  know,  and  in  a  moment  or  two  the 
steamer  started  again. 

On  another  occasion  a  heavy  sea  was  running. 
I  was  playing  chess  below,  while  Charley  was  asleep 
on  the  seat  beside  me.  The  steamer  suddenly 
gave  an  awful  lurch,  and  seemed  for  a  few  instants 
on  the  point  of  turning  turtle.  Charley  was 
pitched  head  first  right  over  two  tables,  while  I 
just  managed  to  keep  my  balance,  though  the 
chess-board  and  men  were  scattered  over  the 
saloon.  When  the  steamer  righted  herself,  Charley 
got  up,  thoroughly  awakened  and  considerably 
bruised. 


no 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  iii 


Back  in  Ireland. 

When  we  arrived  off  Queenstown,  the  weather 
was  so  bad  that  we  could  not  land,  and  had  to  go 
on  to  Liverpool.  We  then  crossed  to  Dublin  and 
went  straight  down  to  Avondale.  Charley  ex- 
pressed his  vivid  delight  at  being  back  home 
again,  as  he  had  never  really  enjoyed  being  in 
America. 

Charley  and  I  used  to  take  a  good  many  walking 
trips  to  Aughavannagh,  where  he  became  inter- 
ested in  the  production  of  turf.  Soon  after  we 
went  to  Paris,  where  our  uncle  Stewart  often  kept 
Charley  up  till  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  talking 
about  American  mortgages  and  bonds.  Charley 
found  the  technical  terms  very  confusing,  but  did 
his  best  to  acquire  a  grip  of  American  finance,  as 
there  was  a  probability  that  our  uncle,  who  was 
then  an  old  man,  would  leave  him  some  of  his 
property  on  his  death. 

We  then  went  over  to  London,  where  our 
guardian,  Sir  Ralph  Howard,  sent  over  to  ask  us 
to  come  and  see  him  at  his  hotel.  He  was  a 
widower,  and  growing  old  and  feeble,  and  par- 
ticularly wanted  to  see  me,  as  he  had  made  me  one 
of  his  heirs.  We  went  round  to  call  on  him,  and 
I  remember  being  very  nervous,  as  I  wished  to 
make  a  good  impression  on  our  uncle,  and  I  knew 
that,  after  my  rough  life  in  America,  my  clothes 


112       CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

would  be  distinctly  behind  the  London  fashions. 
I  went  in  to  see  him  alone,  and  talked  to  him  for 
some  time  about  America.  When  I  came  out, 
Charley  went  in  to  see  Sir  Ralph,  and  unfortun- 
ately mentioned  the  fact  that  the  railway  accident 
had  taken  place  in  the  Alabama  coalfield,  which 
rather  prejudiced  our  uncle  against  investing  his 
money  there,  and  disturbing  his  existing  invest- 
ments in  English  mines. 

Sir  Ralph  Howard  took  a  great  deal  of  interest 
in  Charley's  account  of  American  mines  and  their 
great  future.  Thinking  that  he  was  doing  me  a 
good  turn,  he  praised  up  my  investments  in  land 
in  Alabama  more  than  they  were  justified,  which 
unluckily,  as  events  turned  out,  acted  greatly  to 
my  disadvantage. 

After  our  interview  with  Sir  Ralph  we  went  back 
to  Avondale,  where  we  saw  a  good  deal  of  our 
sisters,  Mrs.  Dickinson  and  Mrs.  McDermott, 
Captain  Dickinson  being  the  agent  for  my  property 
in  Armagh.  I  found,  however,  that  Captain 
Dickinson  had  allowed  the  rents  to  fall  consider- 
ably into  arrears.  He  resigned  his  agency,  and 
I  set  to  work  collecting  the  arrears  myself.  I 
experienced  little  trouble  in  getting  in  the  rent  on 
the  first  gale  day,  though  after  two  years  I  gave  up 
acting  as  my  own  agent,  as  I  saw  that  the  tenants 
could  not  possibly  pay  in  a  bad  time,  as  it  was 
difficult  enough  to  get  in  the  rents  in  compara- 
tively good  times. 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  113 

It  was  thought  that  because  I  had  in  some  in- 
stances to  take  proceedings  against  the  tenants  I 
was  acting  harshly,  but  I  had  to  provide  both  for 
my  sisters'  annuities  and  the  Trinity  College  head 
rent,  which  had  also  fallen  into  arrears,  getting 
nothing  for  myself.  My  collecting,  although  I  met 
with  considerable  success  in  it,  certainly  opened  my 
eyes  to  the  real  condition  of  the  tenant  farmers, 
especially  as  at  this  time  Mr.  Butt  was  advocating 
his  tenant-right  principles. 

We  were  down  at  Avondale  for  some  con- 
siderable time,  Charley  taking  a  great  interest  in 
the  timber,  which  by  means  of  his  sawmills  he 
manufactured  into  various  articles  in  order  to 
provide  for  the  growing  demand  which  existed 
in  America  for  Irish-made  articles. 


Our  Guardian's  Death. 

Our  mother  and  sisters,  having  left  Paris, 
stopped  for  some  time  in  London,  where  they 
frequently  visited  Sir  Ralph  Howard,  who  was 
in  very  bad  health,  and  our  mother  finally  spent 
several  weeks  with  him.  He  gradually  became 
worse,  and  one  day  at  Avondale,  as  Charley  and 
myself  were  walking  about  the  demesne,  we  got  a 
telegram  from  our  mother  saying  that  Sir  Ralph 
Howard  was  dying,  and  that  we  must  hurry  over 
to  London  if  we  wished  to  see  him  while  he  was 
still  living. 

8 


114      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

As  the  mail  train  had  just  left,  we  got  a  car  to 
drive  us  at  furious  speed  to  Kingstown,  where  we 
arrived  at  the  Carlisle  pier  just  in  time  to  catch  the 
mail  boat.  We  reached  London  early  the  next 
morning,  and  after  breakfast  with  our  mother  and 
our  sisters,  Emily,  Sophy,  and  Fanny,  went  over 
to  Sir  Ralph  Howard's  hotel  in  Belgrave  Square. 
We  found,  to  our  regret,  that  he  was  unconscious, 
though  he  recovered  sufficiently  to  recognize  us 
and  to  smile  at  us,  but  was  not  able  to  speak. 

He  died  a  couple  of  hours  after  our  arrival,  and 
at  the  funeral  Charley  and  Lord  Claude  Hamilton 
(afterwards  the  Duke  of  Abercorn)  and  myself 
were  among  the  mourners. 

When  the  will  was  read,  it  was  found  that  he  had 
not  forgotten  our  family.  He  had  left  me  what 
appeared  to  be  a  very  considerable  fortune, 
derived  from  his  English  mining  investments, 
which  brought  my  income  to  an  almost  equal 
amount  to  what  Charley  received  from  Avondale. 

I  might  explain  here  the  reason  why  my  father 
left  Avondale  to  Charley.  Although  I  was  the 
eldest  son,  my  great-uncle  and  guardian.  Sir 
Ralph  Howard,  had  always  told  my  father  that 
he  intended  to  leave  me  a  considerable  portion  of 
his  property,  as  under  the  terms  of  Colonel  Hayes's 
will  Avondale  was  always  to  pass  to  the  second  son. 
It  was  for  that  reason  that,  under  my  father's  will, 
I  was  only  left  the  comparatively  unproductive 
estate  in  Armagh,  burdened  as  it  was,  moreover,  by 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  115 

annuities  to  my  sisters.  The  relations  between 
my  father  and  myself  were  always  perfectly 
cordial,  but  he,  naturally,  did  not  wish  to  leave  any 
of  his  sons  unprovided  for,  and  so  left  the  Carlow 
property  to  Henry,  as  I  was  the  prospective  heir 
of  Sir  Ralph. 

Sir  Ralph  had,  however,  probably  owing  to 
Charley's  conversation  with  him,  altered  his  will 
by  a  codicil,  leaving  me  in  the  end  only  half  the 
amount  of  his  original  bequest,  amounting  to 
about  £4,000  a  year,  the  other  half  being  left  to  his 
cousin.  Lord  Claude  Hamilton,  owing  to  the  in- 
crease in  value  of  the  investments  since  the 
will  was  made.  However,  he  made  me  liable  for 
all  the  calls  on  the  shares. 

After  Sir  Ralph  Howard's  death  I  received  many 
congratulations  on  my  good-fortune,  and  went  over 
to  Paris  to  visit  my  mother's  brother,  Mr.  Charles 
Stewart,  who  had,  however,  left  for  Rome.  While 
there  he  caught  the  Roman  fever,  against  which 
he  had  previously  warned  Charley,  and  my  mother 
was  very  anxious  about  his  condition.  She  got 
telegrams  daily  as  to  his  progress,  but,  seeing  that 
he  became  gradually  worse,  determined  to  go  over 
and  nurse  him  herself.  However,  in  spite  of  her 
devoted  care,  he  died  shortly  afterwards. 

Our  uncle's  will  was  opened  a  few  days  later, 
when  we  found  that  he  had  left  all  his  large  fortune 
in  Southern  railroad  bonds  and  shares  to  our 
mother. 


ii6      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

During  our  stay  in  Paris  we  assisted  our  mother 
to  arrange  her  brother's  affairs.  According  to  the 
Continental  custom,  all  his  effects  were  sealed  until 
our  mother  took  out  administrative  papers.  But 
Charle}^  insisted  that  his  late  uncle  was  an  Ameri- 
can subject,  and  finally  obtained  relief  from  the 
complicated  process  of  the  Continental  law.  It 
was  at  this  time  that  Charley  met  at  the  house  of 
his  sister  (Mrs.  Thompson)  an  American  beauty, 
who  fell  violently  in  love  with  him,  and  to  escape 
whose  advances  he  hastened  his  return  to  Ireland, 
while  I  remained  in  Paris  with  my  sister  Fanny. 

A  Palmist's  Prediction. 

One  day  while  in  Paris,  Fanny,  who  was  always 
inclined  towards  spiritualism,  asked  me  to  come 
with  her  to  see  a  lady  palmist  whom  she  had  pre- 
viously consulted.  I  went  with  her,  and  sat  down 
while  the  palmist  made  a  thorough  examination 
of  the  lines  of  my  hand.  Both  Fanny  and  myself 
were  very  much  astonished  at  her  reading  from 
my  hand  more  of  Charley's  character  than  my 
own,  though  she  did  not  know  my  brother  or  even 
our  name.  She  made  what  afterwards  proved  to 
be  a  correct  forecast  of  Charley's  future  career  in 
politics,  and  the  high  position  to  which  he  was 
ultimately  to  attain.  To  our  dismay,  however,  she 
added,  just  when  I  was  about  to  get  up,  that  some- 
thing dreadful  was  to  happen  to  him  if  he  was  not 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  117 

very  careful.  She  did  not  say  what  the  nature  of 
this  catastrophe  would  be. 

Soon  after  this  I  returned  to  join  Charley  at 
Avondale,  and,  as  I  was  now  well  off,  took  all  the 
shooting  of  Aughavannagh,  but  did  not  lease  the 
barracks  themselves.  Charley,  Captain  Dickinson, 
and  myself,  spent  a  couple  of  weeks  down  there 
grouse-shooting,  and  also  got  up  a  number  of 
coursing  matches  with  the  neighbours. 

In  the  meantime  our  mother  had  wound  up  her 
brother's  affairs  in  Paris,  and  returned  to  Ireland 
to  make  arrangements  to  go  to  New  York  to  see 
after  the  property  in  which  our  uncle  was  con- 
cerned over  there. 

Lord  Carysf ort,  Charley,  and  myself,  had  a  good 
deal  of  shooting  together,  and  on  one  occasion 
Charley  and  I  had  a  regular  quarrel  as  to  who  had 
shot  a  particular  bird  at  which  we  both  fired  at  the 
same  moment.  I  remember,  when  we  arrived  at 
Lord  Carysf ort's,  the  latter  said:  "  Now  that  you 
have  come  home,  you  must  remain  here  and  take 
up  your  position  in  the  county." 

Those  days  during  the  latter  end  of  1873  we 
spent  quietly  in  Wicklow,  no  one  realizing  the 
imperceptible  trend  of  Charley's  mind  towards 
politics.  There  was  no  doubt,  however,  that  the 
events  which  were  occurring  in  Ireland  occupied 
a  considerable  portion  of  his  thoughts. 

The  country  was  at  that  time  chiefly  concerned 
with  the  tenant-right  system,  which  then,  however, 


ii8      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

was  only  legally  recognized  in  Ulster.  Isaac  Butt, 
whose  defence  of  the  Fenians  arrested  during  the 
panic  in  1867  had  gained  him  considerable 
notoriety  and  support  from  all  sections  of  the  Irish 
party,  had  now  assumed  the  leadership  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  His  policy,  however,  was 
that  of  a  strictly  constitutional  campaign  in 
favour  of  Irish  rights.  In  theory  this  was  the 
ideal  course  to  take,  but  in  practice  it  was  of  very 
little  use.  As  Charley,  with  his  keen  insight  into 
the  main  principles  of  politics,  soon  realized,  once 
he  had  assimilated  the  atmosphere  of  the  House 
of  Commons,  constitutional  methods  were  simply 
beating  time  so  far  as  Irish  interests  were  con- 
cerned. Butt  was  thoroughly  devoted  to  the 
Irish  cause,  and  had  an  ultimate  vision  of  Home 
Rule,  but  he  was  bound  head  to  foot  by  the  red 
t^pe  of  constitutionalism.  Charley  appreciated 
his  intentions,  but,  as  I  shall  show  afterwards, 
put  them  in  more  practical  form  by  the  use  of 
original  methods. 

Now  that  we  are  on  the  threshold  of  Charley's 
political  career,  I  must  explain  to  the  best  of  my 
abilit}^  the  motives  and  the  influences  which  caused 
him  to  enter  politics. 


CHAPTER  VII 
CHARLEY'S  ENTRANCE  INTO  POLITICS 

Crossing  the  Rubicon. 

How  did  my  brother  actually  come  to  enter 
politics  ?  That  is  a  question  which  I  have  been 
often  asked,  but  which  I  have  always  found  it 
impossible  to  answer  in  a  single  sentence,  or  with 
any  certainty  as  to  the  exact  causes  which  com- 
pelled him  to  adopt  a  political  career. 

His  actual  decision  was  a  sudden  and  even 
dramatic  one. 

It  took  place  one  night  early  in  1874,  when 
Charley  and  I  were  dining  with  our  sister  Emily 
and  her  husband,  Captain  Dickinson,  at  their 
house  at  22,  Lower  Pembroke  Street,  Dublin.   7 

A  Wager. 

I  remember  the  occasion  vividly,  for  it  followed 
on  a  humorous  and  somewhat  trivial  incident 
which  was,  however,  illustrative  of  Charley's 
character. 

He  had  come  up  from  Cork  that  night,  and, 
finding  on  his  arrival  at  Kingsbridge  that  the  time 

119 


120      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

of  his  engagement  for  dinner  was  very  close,  said 
to  a  jarvey  at  the  station:  "  I'll  give  you  half  a 
crown  if  you  get  me  to  22,  Lower  Pembroke  Street 
by  seven  o'clock,  or  nothing  at  all  if  you  are  a 
minute  after  that."  The  man,  after  a  moment's 
hesitation,  accepted  the  terms  of  the  wager,  but 
he  arrived  at  the  Dickinsons'  house  a  few  minutes 
after  seven,  the  time  agreed  upon,  and  was 
promptly  told  by  Charley  that  he  had  lost  the  bet 
and  would  receive  nothing.  • 

The  jarvey,  however,  being  a  poor  sportsman, 
wished  to  win  both  wa^/s,  and  demanded  his  fare, 
with  many  imprecations.  Charley  steadily  re- 
fused to  pay  him,  and  left  him  exercising  his  lungs 
on  the  pavement.  In  this,  as  in  after-years  when 
transacting  the  more  important  business  of  politics, 
Charley,  while  always  trying  to  get  the  best  terms 
possible,  believed  that  a  bargain,  once  definitely 
struck,  was  inviolable,  even  if  the  other  side  had 
obtained  the  more  favourable  terms. 

The  conversation  at  the  dinner  itself  was  of  a 
light  nature,  and  was  largely  concerned  with  the 
discussion  of  Charley's  affair  with  the  jarvey. 

Afterwards,  however,  it  drifted  into  an  argument 
as  to  tenant  right  and  Butt's  movement  in  general. 
Charley  took  little  active  part  in  the  arguments 
advanced  for  either  side. 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  121 


The  Die  cast. 

Suddenly,  when  we  had  discussed  the  situation 
from  all  points  of  view,  Charley  cried:  "  By  Jove, 
John,  it  would  be  a  grand  opening  for  me  to 
enter  politics  !" 

This  frank  avowal  by  one  who  had  always  been 
so  reticent  as  to  his  real  views  took  our  breath 
away  for  a  moment.  Then  we  all  cried,  carried 
away  by  the  idea  and  the  firm  conviction  of 
his  words:  "  Yes,  it  would.  It  is  a  splendid 
opportunity." 

Once  his  mind  was  made  up,  Charley  never 
wasted  time  in  words.  Speechifying,  even  if  abso- 
lutely necessary,  he  always  abhorred,  and  his 
resolution  once  taken,  his  action  followed  as 
promptly  as  the  thunder  after  lightning. 

Accordingly,  we  had  hardly  had  time  to  express 
our  approval,  when,  without  any  other  words  of 
explanation,  he  went  on  to  say,  betraying  no  ex- 
citement: **  John,  will  you  and  Dickinson  come 
down  with  me  to  the  Freeman's  office  ?" 

I  excused  myself,  and  he  and  Captain  Dickinson 
set  out  at  once  (it  was  then  just  midnight)  to  see 
the  editor  of  Freeman's  Journal.  I  stayed  behind 
with  my  sister,  who  insisted  on  waiting  up  till 
their  return.  We  were  both  very  excited,  and 
the  hours  of  waiting  seemed  interminable. 


122      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 


A  Rebuff. 

It  was  after  2  a.m.  when  they  returned.  Charley 
looked  disheartened  and  annoyed.  He  had  in- 
deed met  with  a  serious  rebuff  at  the  very  outset 
of  his  political  career. 

At  that  time  he  was  High  Sheriff  of  Wicklow, 
and  directly  he  told  the  editor  of  Freeman's 
Journal  of  his  intention  of  standing  for  Parlia- 
ment, the  latter  said  that  it  would  be  impossible 
for  him  to  do  so,  as  his  resignation  from  the  High 
Shrievalty  would  have  first  to  be  tendered  to,  and 
be  accepted  by,  the  Lord  Lieutenant. 

Next  morning  Charley  hurried  off  to  present  his 
resignation  to  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  who  said, 
however,  that  he  could  not  accept  it  there  and 
then,  as  certain  formalities  had  to  be  complied 
with. 

This  did  away  with  any  chance  of  Charley  con- 
testing Wicklow  at  that  election,  as  the  other 
candidates  were  already  in  the  field. 

The  delay,  and  what  he  conceived  to  be  a  slight 
on  the  part  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  in  not  immedi- 
ately accepting  his  resignation,  and  so  setting  him 
free  to  contest  the  seat,  stung  Charley  deeply,  and 
left  him  with  a  feeling  of  resentment  against  the 
English  Government,  which  quickly  became  a 
rooted  portion  of  his  character. 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  123 


Indomitable. 

However,  he  was  not  to  be  turned  from  his  point 
once  he  had  definitely  decided  upon  a  course  of 
action.  When  a  front  movement  failed,  he  was 
always  ready  with  a  new  flank  attack.  So,  when 
we  were  again  assembled  at  dinner  the  next 
evening,  I  noticed  that  Charley  was  in  real  fighting 
form.  He  said  little,  and  seemed  to  be  turning 
things  over  carefully  in  his  mind ;  but  there  was  a 
light  in  his  eyes  which  I  knew  well  from  the  days 
of  our  boyish  quarrels,  and  I  waited  patiently  until 
he  should  arrive  at  a  solution,  as  I  felt  assured 
he  would  sooner  or  later,  of  his  present  difficulty. 

Emily,  Captain  Dickinson,  and  myself,  were  dis- 
cussing Charley's  position,  trying  to  invent  means 
of  extricating  him  from  his  dilemma,  when  Charley 
suddenly  lifted  his  head,  and,  looking  straight  at 
me,  said:  "  John,  we  must  run  you." 

I  was  thoroughly  taken  aback  by  the  idea, 
which  was  quite  new  to  me,  and  which  I  by  no 
means  welcomed.  I  pointed  out  that  he,  with  his 
wealth  and  his  Wicklow  connection  and  influence, 
was  the  only  one  to  have  a  chance;  while  I,  owing 
to  my  property,  was  really  more  of  an  Armagh  man, 
and  was,  besides,  somewhat  prejudiced  in  public 
opinion,  because  I  had  lived  in  America  and 
carried  on  fruit-farming  there.  He  brushed  aside 
all  my  arguments,  and  I  finally  consented,  rather 


124      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

against  my  own  judgment,  but  thinking  that  by 
doing  so  I  might  help  Charley  to  enter  politics — 
a  course  which  I  had  already  strongly  urged  him 
to  take. 

Immediately  I  had  yielded  my  somewhat  grudg- 
ing consent,  Charley  took  pen  and  ink  and  began 
to  draw  up  my  election  address,  to  which  I  refer 
in  the  succeeding  chapter.  I  was  therefore 
launched  in  politics,  but,  what  proved  to  be  more 
important,  it  was  Charley  who  launched  me  and 
who  directed  my  course.  For  it  was  in  the  wake  of 
my  fruitless  little  Wicklow  expedition  in  1874  that 
he  himself  became  drawn  into  the  sea  of  politics. 

I  have  said  that  I  did  my  best  to  escape  from 
an  unsolicited  and  unprepared  entry  into  public 
life.  But  from  the  moment  he  had  said,  "  John, 
we  must  run  you,"  I  knew  that  his  mind  was  made 
up,  and  that  I  must  either  follow  the  course  which 
he  had  set  for  me,  or  break  with  him  once  for 
all.  It  was  the  manner  of  his  after  Parliamentary 
days,  but  it  was  already  completely  developed. 

A  Shrouded  Growth. 

How  it  developed,  how  Charley  came  to  take 
any  interest  in  politics  at  all,  still  more  how  he 
came  so  suddenly  to  show  a  complete  mastery  of 
them,  is  the  mystery. 

It  is  one  which  it  is  very  hard  to  solve  to  any 
degree  of  satisfaction,  as,  in  spite  of  my  almost 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  125 

constant  intimacy  with  Charley  during  his  early 
years,  I  have  so  little  to  go  upon  as  regards  things 
spoken,  and  as  regards  things  written  nothing  at  all. 

Charley  kept  his  own  counsel  even  as  a  boy. 
As  a  man  this  trait  developed  to  such  an  extent 
that  it  was  only  on  very  rare  occasions  that  one 
caught  a  glimpse  of  the  real  man  beneath  the 
courteous  but  frigid  exterior. 

If  an3^thing  can  be  said  to  have  been  the  first 
impulse  that  directed  Charley's  attention  towards 
politics,  it  was  the  American  Civil  War.  This  was 
a  constant  topic  of  discussion  in  our  family  circle, 
owing  to  our  being  American  on  our  mother's  side. 
Charley,  as  I  have  said,  at  first  warmly  espoused 
the  cause  of  the  North,  as  being  that  of  anti- 
slavery,  though  during  his  visit  to  America  his 
sympathies  gradually  veered  towards  the  South, 
which  he  came  to  regard  as  the  section  actually 
fighting  for  freedom. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  immense  sacrifices 
made  on  behalf  of  liberty,  which  he  often  discussed 
with  Mr.  Harry  King,  Mr.  Matt  Hill,  and  other 
Americans  with  whom  he  came  in  contact,  made 
a  profound  and  lasting  impression  upon  his  mind. 

Charley  in  Conversation. 

But  it  must  be  remembered  that  then,  as  ever, 
he  was  always  a  questioner  rather  than  an  in- 
formant.    He  wanted  to  get  every  scrap  of  infor- 


126      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

mation  and  every  shade  of  opinion  on  any  subject 
in  which  he  took  a  real  interest,  but  at  the  same 
time  he  did  not  Hke  disclosing  his  own  views, 
especially  when  they  were,  so  to  speak,  in  the 
melting-pot.  Once  he  arrived  at  a  definite  opinion, 
he  used  to  express  it  (and  then  only  when  he  con- 
sidered such  an  expression  of  opinion  to  be  abso- 
lutely unavoidable)  as  clearly  and  in  as  few  words 
as  possible,  giving  no  reasons,  however,  for  his 
having  arrived  at  that  opinion. 

As  he  gradually  grew  out  of  childhood,  this 
reserve  of  Charley's  became  more  and  more 
accentuated.  The  greater  portion  of  it  was  un- 
doubtedly due  to  a  mixture  of  nervousness  and 
pride,  resulting  in  a  sort  of  shy  repulsion  towards 
allowing  his  inner  thoughts  and  real  nature  to 
appear  on  the  surface,  to  be  at  the  mercy  of  the 
multitude.  There  was  also,  it  must  be  owned,  at 
times  what  appeared  to  be  just  a  trace  of  affecta- 
tion in  this  Sphinx-like  attitude  towards  the 
world  in  general. 

The  Wink  of  the  Sphinx. 

I  remember  meeting  Charley,  when  he  was  in  the 
height  of  his  glory,  one  day  in  Kildare  Street.  I 
had  only  just  returned  from  one  of  my  trips  to 
America,  and  had  that  morning  seen  him  at 
Morrison's  Hotel.  I  was  expecting  to  meet  him 
at  Harcourt  Street  Station  in  the  evening,  and  to 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  127 

go  down  with  him  to  Avondale.  We  were  going  in 
opposite  directions,  and  passed  on  the  same  pave- 
ment, almost  touching  one  another.  Charley, 
however,  showed  not  the  slightest  sign  of  recog- 
nition until  we  were  almost  side  by  side;  then  he 
just  winked  the  eye  nearest  to  me. 

It  was  no  sign  of  boisterous  jollity  or  facetious 
slyness,  such  as  the  dropping  of  the  eyelid  generally 
betokens.  Charley  simply  wished  to  show  that 
he  had  seen  and  recognized  me,  but  did  not  wish 
to  disturb  his  demeanour  of  perfect  composure  and 
aloofness.  And  how  great  an  asset  that  aloofness 
was  perhaps  he  himself  only  knew.  It  was  not 
only  an  armour  against  the  English ;  it  was  a  robe 
that  attracted  the  loyalty,  and  even  the  wild  en- 
thusiasm, of  his  own  countrymen,  while  at  the 
same  time  repelling  their  intimacy. 

So  it  can  easily  be  understood  that  Charley's 
mind  could  not  be  read  as  a  book.  It  was  only 
a  stray  straw  that  gave  an  indication — often  not 
more  than  a  suspicion — of  the  way  the  wind  was 
blowing. 

If  the  American  Civil  War  may  be  said  to  have 
first  aroused  Charley's  interest  in  politics,  it  was 
certainly  the  Fenian  outbreak  that  concentrated 
that  interest  on  Irish  affairs.  With  the  Fenian 
doctrine  itself,  and  especially  with  the  Fenian 
methods,  he  was  never  really  in  sympathy,  though 
he  used  the  great  power  of  that  well-organized 
body  to  effect  his  own  ends,  or,  rather,  to  further 


128      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

that  policy  which  he  beUeved  to  be  more  beneficial 
to  his  country  as  a  whole. 

His  loyalty  to  the  Throne  was  above  suspicion, 
though  he  always  treated  the  English  as  open 
enemies,  and  regarded  their  politicians  with  the 
utmost  suspicion.  Our  mother,  though  American 
to  the  core,  a  burning  enthusiast  in  the  cause  of 
Irish  liberty,  and  possessed  of  an  inveterate  hatred 
of  England — against  which  country  her  famous 
father,  Commodore  Stewart,  had  so  often  waged 
battle  with  conspicuous  success  on  the  high  seas — 
yet  always  instilled  into  her  children  the  principles 
of  personal  loyalty  to  their  Sovereign,  which  she 
held  not  to  be  inconsistent  with  individual  liberty. 


A  Mother's  Advice. 

Here  are  some  extracts  from  one  of  her  letters 
to  me  when  I  was  a  Member  of  Parliament,  con- 
taining an  exhortation  which  she  must  often  have 
addressed  to  Charley  as  well  during  his  lifetime. 
It  shows  her  loyalty  towards  Queen  Victoria,  her 
dislike  (at  that  time)  of  the  extremists,  and  her 
sympathy  with  the  Irish  peasantry: 

How  the  Queen  must  despise  low,  mean, 
mischief  -  making  extremists !  They  get 
money  by  rousing  passions  and  exaggerating 
aims.  If  they  succeed,  rebellion  and  anarchy 
will  run  riot  in  Europe.  .  .  . 

The  well-off  people  are  making  misery  in 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  129 

Ireland.  Do  not  let  the  poorer  be  exasper- 
ated. Say  a  word  if  you  can.  Have  the 
poorer  protected. 

Ireland  seems  to  have  more  manufactories. 
Get  them  stimulated  and  protected;  young 
factories  need  protection.  My  father  and 
your  brother  thought  this. 

The  Queen  is  wise  and  good;  find  out  her 
opinions.     Her  Ministers  are  not  infallible. 

In  another  letter  she  urges  me  to  attend  the 
levees  and  other  Court  functions. 

But  if  the  cause  of  the  Fenians  did  not  enlist 
Charley's  sympathies,  the  support  which  they  re- 
ceived made  him  consider  the  abuses  and  distress 
which  existed  in  his  own  country,  which  he  saw 
more  and  more  in  their  naked  hideousness  as  he 
went  about  among  his  tenants  on  the  Avondale 
estate. 

The  Manchester  Executions. 

It  was  the  Manchester  executions  in  1867,  how- 
ever, that  made  the  most  marked  impression  on 
him.  He  vehementlj^  declared  that  the  killing  of 
Sergeant  Brett  was  no  premeditated  murder,  but 
an  accident — a  declaration  that  he  repeated  with 
even  more  force  to  a  startled  House  of  Commons 
in  1875,  when  Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach  referred 
to  those  who  perished  on  the  scaffold  as  "  mur- 
derers." 

About  this  time  I  often  used  to  find  him  at 

9 


130       CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

Avondale  crouching  over  one  of  his  beloved 
wood  fires,  deep  in  thought  and  crooning  over 
to  himself  snatches  of  the  "  Wearing  of  the 
Green/' 

Although  loyal,  as  I  have  said,  he  bitterly  re- 
sented the  raid  made  on  our  house  in  Temple 
Street  during  the  Fenian  outbreak,  and  the  re- 
moval of  our  swords  and  uniforms.  Jest  though 
he  did,  that  and  the  supercilious  way  he  was 
treated  by  the  officers  at  the  Castle,  as,  if  not 
actually  a  Fenian,  at  any  rate  a  sympathizer  with 
the  Irish  cause,  certainly  fanned  his  dislike  of 
England,  inherited  as  it  was  through  his  mother, 
to  a  flame  of  concentrated  enmity. 

**  Had  we  never  met  and  never  parted." 

Two  influences  nearly  caused  him  to  settle  down 
for  good  in  private  life.  One  was  his  engagement 
to  Miss  Woods,  which,  had  it  turned  out  as  he 
expected,  would  have  meant  his  living  a  contented 
and  comfortable  life  at  Avondale,  on  the  Con- 
tinent, or  in  America.  His  jilting  undoubtedly 
helped  to  drive  his  energies  into  politics,  for  he 
was  deeply  hurt  at  the  idea  of  being  considered 
simply  a  country  gentleman  without  any  special 
abilities. 

The  other  was  his  interest  in  American  mines. 
If  he  had  taken  more  kindly  to  American  life,  and 
had  not  been  so  much  upset  by  the  railway  acci- 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  131 

dent,  he  might  have  died  a  wealthy  but  unremem- 
bered  American  mining  magnate. 

Commerce,  especially  in  the  direction  of  mining, 
always  had  a  special  fascination  for  him,  and 
might  at  any  time  have  proved  a  profitable  career 
had  not  the  still  stronger  fascination  of  politics 
predominated. 

On  his  return  to  Ireland,  he  found  Butt's  tenant- 
right  campaign  in  full  swing,  and  studied  it  closely 
in  the  newspapers  of  all  shades  of  opinions,  though 
his  comments  were  few  and  far  between. 

One  day  when  he  was  standing  in  front  of  the 
fire  at  Avondale,  I  said  to  him:  *'  Why  don't  you 
take  up  this  tenant-right  business  of  Butt's  and 
enter  Parliament  ?"  I  had  just  then  gained  con- 
siderable insight  into  the  tenant-right  system 
through  acting  as  my  own  agent  on  my  Armagh 
estate,  and  had  been  arguing  with  Charley  as  to 
the  desirability  of  extending  the  system  through- 
out Ireland. 

He  replied  curtly:  "  I  could  not,  because  I  would 
not  join  that  set."  His  pride,  in  other  words, 
prevented  him  moving  with  the  Home  Rulers  of 
that  time,  because  they  were  beneath  him  in 
station.  That  feeling  he  had  apparently  subdued 
sufficiently  by  the  time  of  the  dinner-party  in 
1874  for  him,  at  least,  to  consent  to  mix  with  the 
Nationalist  party.  But  to  the  end  of  his  career 
he  was  never  intimate  with  the  members  of  his 
party,  however  closely  he  might  be  brought  into 


132      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

contact  with  them  in  the  rtansaction  of  pohtical 
business.  He  was  always  a  man  apart,  and  in  his 
isolation  lay  his  strength. 


His  Character — by  his  Mother. 

With  regard  to  this  and  other  traits  of  his 
character,  I  do  not  think  I  can  do  better  than 
quote  a  letter  from  our  mother,  in  which  she  ex- 
presses, with  her  customary  directness,  her  opinion 
of  Charley  and  his  political  associates.  After 
saying  that  Charley  offended  Gladstone  owing  to 
his  independence,  and  after  referring  to  the  Irish 
leaders  as  being  of  little  account,  she  says : 

Your  brother  is  the  only  gentleman  in  the 
whole  set — so  high-principled,  so  strictly  deli- 
cate and  correct-minded.  I  swear  by  him. 
Hear  all  the  Billingsgate  of  some  of  the  others. 
Your  brother  never  called  one  of  them  by  any 
fool-names.  He  only  told  facts,  and  only 
called  Davitt  a  political  jackdaw. 

He  is  a  close  follower  of  Biblical  morality. 
...  I  swear  by  his  strong  and  scrupulous 
morality,  and  even  spirituality.  What  a 
good,  benevolent,  unselfish,  self-respecting 
man  he  has  been  ! 

That  is  enough  for  me.     I  wonder  what 
Gladstone  sinned  in  when  a  young  man. 
Ever  your  fond  mother, 

Delia  T.  S.  Parnell. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
FIRST  BLOOD 

The  Wicklow  Election. 

I  CONSIDER  the  Wicklow  election,  as  I  have  indi- 
cated in  the  last  chapter,  to  be  Charley's  first 
entrance  into  politics,  though,  as  High  Sheriff  of 
Wicklow,  he  was  supposed  to  occupy  a  neutral 
position. 

It  was  he,  however,  who,  as  I  have  said,  drew 
up  my  election  address,  sitting  opposite  to  me  at 
Captain  Dickinson's  dining-table.  It  was  his  first 
printed  political  utterance,  and,  with  the  exception 
of  a  few  slight  alterations  which  I  suggested  to 
him,  is  entirely  the  voicing  of  his  own  opinions  at 
that  time.  As  such,  I  think  it  deserves  quoting 
in  full.     It  runs  as  follows: 

To  the  Electors  of  the  County  Wicklow. 

Gentlemen, 

Believing  that  the  time  has  arrived  for 

all  true  Irishmen  to  unite  in  the  spontaneous 

demand  for  justice  from  England  that  is  now 

convulsing  the  country,  I  have  determined  to 

133 


134      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

offer  myself  for  the  honour  of  representing 
you  in  ParUament. 

The  principles  for  which  my  ancestor,  Sir 
John  Parnell,  then  Chancellor  of  the  Irish 
Exchequer,  refused  the  peerage  from  an 
English  Government  are  still  mine,  and  the 
cause  of  Repeal  of  the  Union  under  its  new 
name  of  Home  Rule  will  always  find  in  me  a 
firm  and  honest  supporter. 

My  experience  of  the  working  of  the  Ulster 
system  of  Land  Tenure  in  the  North  convinces 
me  that  there  is  no  other  remedy  for  the  un- 
fortunate relations  existing  between  landlord 
and  tenant  in  other  parts  of  Ireland  than  the 
legalization  through  the  whole  of  the  country 
of  the  Ulster  Tenant  Right,  which  is  prac- 
tically Fixity  of  Tenure,  or  some  equivalent 
or  extension  of  a  custom  which  has  so 
increased  the  prosperity  of  the  thriving 
North. 

A  residence  for  several  years  in  America, 
where  Religious  and  Secular  Education  are 
combined,  has  assured  me  that  the  attempt 
to  deprive  the  youth  of  the  country  of  spiritual 
instruction  must  be  put  down,  and  I  shall  give 
my  support  to  the  Denominational  System 
in  connection  both  with  the  University  and 
Primary  branches. 

Owing  to  the  great  tranquillity  of  the 
Country,  I  think  it  would  now  be  a  graceful 
act  to  extend  the  Clemency  of  the  Crown  to 
the  remaining  Political  Prisoners. 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  135 

My  grandfather  and  uncle  represented  this 
County  for  many  years,  and  as  you  have  ex- 
perienced their  trustworthiness,  so  I  also  hope 
you  will  believe  in  mine. 

I  am.  Gentlemen, 

Yours  truly, 
John  Howard  Parnell. 


We  were  rather  behindhand,  as  the  other  candi- 
dates had  already  issued  their  election  addresses 
and  started  canvassing. 

A  Stump  Speech. 

However,  nothing  daunted,  Charley  set  off  by 
the  morning  train  to  Rathdrum  to  show  the  people 
we  were  really  in  earnest.  He  had  been  regarded 
in  many  quarters,  owing  to  his  position,  as  a 
stanch  Conservative,  and  his  appearance  as  the 
supporter  of  a  Nationalist  candidate  aroused  con- 
siderable suspicion. 

When  he  arrived  it  was  fair-day,  and,  after 
looking  round  the  market-place  and  finding  the 
farmers  eyeing  him  very  curiously,  he  suddenly 
mounted  a  big  beer-barrel,  in  the  midst  of  the 
cattle  and  sheep,  and  addressed  the  astonished 
crowd. 

His  speech,  I  believe,  though  deHvered  with 
some  of  the  hesitation  due  to  its  being  a  maiden 
one,  was  a  spirited  and  telling  one.     Probably, 


136      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

however,  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  strong  support 
which  the  Parish  Priest  of  Rathdrum,  Father 
Galvin  (whom  I  have  ah*eady  mentioned  in  con- 
nection with  our  American  trip),  had  exercised 
among  the  clerg}^,  he  might  have  met  with  a  hostile 
reception.  Father  Galvin,  however,  had  from  the 
outset  warmly  supported  my  candidature,  though 
he  knew  very  well  that  it  was  Charley  who  was  at 
the  bottom  of  the  whole  affair. 

When  I  arrived  by  the  evening  train  (as  Charley 
had  wired  me  to  do,  even  telling  me  if  I  was  late 
to  take  a  special  engine)  I  learned  that  Father 
Galvin  had  telegraphed  to  the  Arklow  priests  to 
come  down  to  the  station  to  meet  me,  and  I  found 
to  my  surprise  that,  when  I  stepped  out  of  the 
train,  the  platform  was  crowded  with  priests, 
most  of  whom  did  not  know  either  Charley  or 
myself. 

Headed  by  the  band  and  escorted  by  the 
priests,  I  proceeded,  accompanied  by  a  large  crowd, 
to  Father  Galvin's  house.  We  afterwards  had  a 
round-table  conference,  where  I  was  enthusiastic- 
ally welcomed  as  the  candidate  for  Wicklow. 

Next  day  Charley  set  off  for  Hacketstown  and 
West  Wicklow  canvassing  for  me,  but  met  with  a 
very  mixed  reception.  When  he  returned,  he 
told  me  that  I  could  not  count  on  much  support 
from  that  side  of  the  county,  as  they  appeared  on 
the  whole  to  be  likely  to  vote  for  the  landlords. 
He  came  to  my  bedside  one  night,  after  I  had  been 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  137 

engaged  in  a  hard  day's  work  writing  circulars, 
and  said  to  me  jokingly  when  I  woke  up:  "  John, 
what  are  you  kicking  up  such  a  row  about  ?"  I 
told  him  that  it  was  not  myself,  but  he,  who  was 
kicking  up  the  row,  and  said:  **  You  are  right  to 
do  so." 

I  was  duly  nominated  by  Charley,  as  well  as  by 
a  number  of  other  Nationalists,  and  was  carried 
round  on  the  shoulders  of  the  people.  He  told  me 
after  the  election  that  he  had  even  voted  for  me, 
but  his  vote  was  not  allowed. 

I  attributed  a  great  deal  of  the  antagonism 
shown  towards  me  to  the  fact  that  I  was  the  first 
to  import  frozen  fruit  from  America  to  Ireland, 
which  was  followed  by  the  importation  of  frozen 
meat,  which  local  farmers  thought  would  greatly 
injure  their  trade.  To  be  American,  in  fact,  was 
at  that  time  considered  a  great  reproach  in  Ireland 
amongst  the  agricultural  classes. 

When  Charley,  as  High  Sheriff,  announced  the 
figures  of  the  election,  I  found  myself  at  the  bottom 
of  the  poll ;  but,  considering  all  the  circumstances, 
I,  or  rather  we,  had  made  a  good  fight. 

A  Fight  for  Dublin. 

Defeat,  as  ever,  only  whetted  Charley's  ambition 
to  succeed  in  the  end.  He  had  not  long  to  wait. 
In  1874,  Colonel  Taylor,  who  was  one  of  the 
Members  for   Dublin   County,   had    to   seek   re- 


138      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

election  owing  to  his  having  been  appointed 
Chancellor  of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster.  Charley- 
had  by  then  become  recognized  as  a  promising 
member  of  the  Home  Rule  League,  and  they  de- 
cided to  put  him  up  to  make  a  good  fight  for  what, 
however,  the  most  sanguine  considered  to  be  a 
hopeless  chance. 

After  my  defeat  in  Wicklow  I  had  been  over  to 
America  to  see  about  my  mother's  affairs.  What 
was  known  as  the  Black  Friday  Panic  suddenly 
swept  over  the  stock  markets  in  New  York  when 
we  were  trying  to  realize  our  uncle's  property, 
and  the  greater  portion  of  the  fine  fortune  left  to 
my  mother  was  lost. 

On  my  return  to  England,  I  was  present  at  the 
Rotunda  when  Charley  delivered  his  first  public 
speech  as  a  candidate  for  Dublin.  It  had  been 
carefully  thought  out  and  written  down  on  paper 
at  Mrs.  Dickinson's,  in  the  top  bedroom  which  he 
occupied  there.  The  memorizing  of  it  occupied 
him  during  a  whole  sleepless  night,  and  when  he 
appeared  at  breakfast  he  seemed  very  tired.  I 
may  mention  that  it  was  Charley's  invariable  habit 
to  think  out  his  plans  in  detail  while  in  bed  at 
night. 

When  he  delivered  his  speech  I  was  standing 
close  by  him.  After  a  few  sentences  he  stopped 
suddenly,  apparently  tr3dng  to  recall  a  word 
which  he  had  forgotten.  He  was  not  nervous, 
although  the  audience  was.     He  seemed  to  search 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  139 

his  brain  deliberately  for  the  missing  word,  dis- 
regarding all  attempts  on  the  part  of  friends  to 
prompt  him.  When  he  had  found  it,  we  all  realized 
that  it  was  the  only  word  to  be  fitly  used  in  that 
connection.  These  pauses  occurred  several  times 
during  his  speech,  and  no  doubt  gave  rise  to  the 
impression  among  certain  critics  that  he  would 
never  succeed  as  a  public  speaker.  The  whole- 
hearted applause  of  the  audience,  however,  showed 
that,  whatever  the  manner  of  his  delivery,  the 
matter  of  his  speech  had  impressed  itself  on  their 
minds. 

His  defeat  did  him  no  harm.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  by  showing  his  dogged  perseverance,  it  gained 
him  yet  more  ground  with  his  party,  and  he 
became  a  man  to  be  estimated  by  them  and  feared 
by  their  opponents. 

Elected  at  Last. 

Then  came  his  real  chance.  John  Martin,  one 
of  the  Members  for  Meath,  died  in  March,  1875, 
and  Charley  was  adopted  as  the  official  Nationalist 
candidate.  He  was  opposed  by  an  independent 
Home  Ruler  and  a  Tory.  He  was,  however,  re- 
turned at  the  head  of  the  poll  in  April,  1876,  and 
his  success  was  followed  by  his  being  carried  round 
a  bonfire  in  the  market  square  of  Trim. 

The  election  was  practically  the  result  of  an 
animated  interview  which  he  had  with  the  Bishop, 


140      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

after  which  the  support  of  the  clergy  was  assured. 
The  Bishop  at  first  was  prejudiced  against  him, 
as  Charley  afterwards  told  me;  but  my  brother's 
arguments  were  so  convincing,  and  his  personal 
charm  of  manner  so  great,  that  he  succeeded  in 
winning  the  Bishop's  support,  and  this  made  his 
election  certain. 


CHAPTER  IX 

IN    PARLIAMENT 

Taking  his   Seat. 

Introduced  by  Captain  Nolan,  the  Member  for 
Galway,  who  was  afterwards  to  prove  a  devoted 
adherent  of  his,  and  Mr.  Ennis,  the  senior  Member 
for  Meath,  my  brother  took  his  seat  in  the  House 
of  Commons  on  April  22,  1875.  His  policy  in  the 
House  during  the  first  session  was  characteristic  of 
the  man.  He  set  himself  to  work  to  absorb  im- 
pressions, to  study  the  characters  of  his  fellow- 
members,  and  to  learn  the  complicated  rules  of 
procedure.  He  therefore  made  no  attempt  to 
startle  the  House  with  an  ambitious  maiden  speech. 
A  brief  utterance  of  his,  however,  delivered  four 
days  after  his  entrance  into  the  House,  was  suffi- 
cient to  concentrate  attention  upon  him,  both 
among  his  fellow-members  and  the  American  and 
Irish  sympathizers  with  the  Nationalist  cause.  In 
opposing  in  Committee  a  Bill  for  the  preservation 
of  peace  in  Ireland,  he  said  that  "  in  the  neglect 
of  the  principles  of  self-government  lay  the  root  of 
all  Irish  trouble,"  adding  that  "  Ireland  is  not  a 
geographical  fragment,  but  a  nation." 

14Z 


142      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

During  the  rest  of  the  session  he  is  recorded  by 
Hansard  to  have  spoken  on  fourteen  occasions, 
but  his  remarks  were  brief  and  business-like,  and 
attracted  no  special  attention  except  to  establish 
an  opinion  that  when  he  spoke  he  spoke  to  the 
point. 

There  were  fifty-nine  Home  Rulers  in  the  House 
at  the  time  when  Charley  entered  it.  He  appears 
to  have  listened  carefully  to  their  speeches  in 
order  to  arrive  at  a  separate  estimate  of  each  man. 
As  a  whole,  he  soon  arrived  at  the  opinion  that 
the  Irish  party  simply  devoted  themselves  to  sup- 
porting measures  favourable  to  Irish  interests. 
It  did  not  take  him  long  to  realize  that  this  poHcy 
of  itself  would  effect  Httle.  The  Irish  party  and 
its  aims  were  held  of  little  account  by  both  the  great 
English  parties,,  and  any  measures  introduced  by 
them  received  the  scantiest  consideration.  Their 
leader,  Mr.  Isaac  Butt,  refused  to  budge  an  inch 
from  constitutional  methods  of  warfare.  I  know 
that  at  that  time  both  Charley  and  myself  agreed 
that  Butt  was,  if  not  too  weak  a  man,  at  any  rate 
too  unenterprising  to  be  the  leader  of  what  then 
appeared  to  be  a  forlorn  hope. 

With  his  invariable  resolve  never  to  be  beaten, 
Charley  set  himself  to  work  silently  but  steadily 
to  find  a  way  out.  For  this  purpose  he  looked 
round  for  a  new  policy,  or  rather  a  new  plan  of 
campaign  and  a  fitting  exponent  of  it. 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  143 

Mr.  Biggar. 

He  found  both  the  pohcy  and  the  man  in  Joseph 
Biggar.  While  the  other  members  of  the  Irish 
party  were  content  to  be  suppressed  by  force  of 
numbers  and  by  their  obedience  to  the  recognized 
rules  of  the  political  game,  Biggar  adopted  an 
entirely  independent  attitude.  He  hated  the 
English  parties,  despised  the  rules  of  the  House, 
and  feared  nobody. 

As  a  speaker  he  was  hopeless.  His  so-called 
"speeches"  consisted  of  short,  abrupt  sentences, 
or  often  parts  of  sentences,  with  no  connected,  and 
certainly  no  original,  idea  running  through  them, 
and  helped  out,  when  words  and  ideas  failed  him, 
as  they  did  repeatedly,  by  copious  extracts  from 
Blue  Books,  White  Papers,  and  other  documents, 
which  earned  him  the  well-deserved  hatred  of  a 
long-suffering  House.  Hatred,  however,  on  the 
part  of  the  English  members  was  Biggar's  highest 
idea  of  glory.  To  realize  that  he  had  kept  his 
fellow-members  from  their  social  engagements, 
and  even  their  beds,  was  a  triumph  for  him.  In 
appearance  he  was  a  stout,  good-humoured-looking 
man,  with  a  round,  bespectacled  face  and  the 
general  appearance  of  a  prosperous  tradesman. 

Force  of  Example. 

Although  Biggar  was  treated  with  some  con- 
tempt, even  by  the  members  of  his  own  party, 


144       CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

Charley  soon  realized  that  he  had  inaugurated  an 
entirely  new  system  of  political  warfare,  which  in 
more  capable  hands  might  be  turned  to  good 
account. 

Charley  accordingly  set  to  work  as  unostenta- 
tiously  as  possible  to  master  the  rules  of  the 
House,   and  to  derive  from  his  fellow-members 
scraps  of  information  as  to  the  value  of  questions  to 
Ministers,  interjections,  and  other  means  by  which 
a  private  member,  even  in  the  face  of  an  over- 
whelming majority,  could  assert  his  own  identity. 
But  he  did  not  attempt  to  put  his  principles  into 
practice  until  he  had  thoroughly   mastered  his 
subject.     He  gradually  trained  himself  by  means 
of  short  speeches,  formal  motions,  and  questions, 
to  overcome  the  diffidence  and  hesitation  which 
he  originally  felt  in  making  a  public  speech.      At 
the  same  time  he  gradually  acquired  a  sense,  for 
which  he  was  so  much  noted  in  later  years,  of 
attuning  himself  to  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
becoming  by  degrees  one  of  those  few  members 
whose  every  word,  on  however  slight  a  subject,  was 
listened  to  with  attention. 

It  was  not  until  the  session  of  1876  that  he 
definitely  decided  to  make  the  power  of  the  Irish 
party  felt  by  clogging  the  political  machine,  which 
until  then,  by  a  sort  of  tacit  consent,  had  run  with 
perfect  smoothness,  throwing  out  Irish  Bills  with 
automatic  regularity.  Charley,  however,  deter- 
mined that  henceforward  not  only  would  it  be 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  145 

hard  work  for  whatever  government  was  in  power 
to  reject  an  Irish  Bill,  but  that  even  EngHsh 
measures  would  be  checked  at  every  possible 
stage.  He  did  not,  however,  definitely  open  his 
campaign  of  obstruction  until  after  paying  a  visit  to 
America  in  company  with  Mr.  O'Connor  Power,  to 
deliver  an  address  on  the  part  of  the  more  extreme 
Nationalists,  to  President  Grant,  on  the  occasion 
of  the  centenary  of  American  Independence. 

Before  he  went  to  America  he  made  a  short 
utterance  which,  whether  designed  to  that  effect 
or  not,  certainly  fixed  upon  him  the  attention  of 
the  Fenians,  and  went  a  long  way  to  assure  him 
of  their  future  support. 

Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach  (afterwards  Lord  St. 
Aldwyn),  who  was  then  Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland, 
referred,  in  a  speech  on  Home  Rule,  to  the  Fenian 
outbreak  at  Manchester,  describing  the  three  men 
who  had  been  executed  as  the  "  Manchester 
murderers." 

Charley  interjected  "  No,  no  !"  which  caused 
Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach  to  exclairii,  amidst  the 
cheers  and  groans  of  the  united  English  parties: 
"  I  regret  to  hear  that  there  is  an  hon.  member 
in  this  House  who  will  apologize  for  murder." 

My  brother  rose,  I  am  told,  with  a  deadly  white 
face  and  blazing  eyes,  and  said  in  a  low  voice,  but 
in  accents  which  were  heard  throughout  the 
House:  "  I  wish  to  say,  as  publicly  and  directly 
as  I  can,   that   I   do   not   believe,   and   I  never 

10 


146      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

shall    believe,  that  any  murder  was  committed 
at  Manchester." 

Sir  Michael  did  not  reply,  but  continued  his 
speech,  and  the  cheers  with  which  Charley  was 
welcomed  by  his  Irish  colleagues  showed  that  he 
had  scored  his  first  striking  victory. 


In  America. 

When  he  came  over  to  the  United  States  in 
October,  1876,  to  present  the  Nationalist  address 
to  General  Grant,  I  was  in  New  York  at  the  time, 
staying  with  my  mother  and  my  sister  Fanny  at  the 
Fifth  Avenue  Hotel.  Charley,  after  spending  an 
hour  with  us,  set  off  with  Mr.  Power  to  see  General 
Grant,  who  was  then  in  New  York.  The  President 
received  them  cordially,  but  said  that  he  could  not 
officially  accept  the  address,  which  had  for  its 
real  purpose  the  attaining  of  some  recognition,  by 
America,  of  Ireland  as  a  separate  nation,  without 
its  being  presented  through  the  usual  diplomatic 
channel,  the  British  Ambassador,  a  course  which 
they  declined  to  take. 

Charley,  after  his  brief  interview  with  the  Presi- 
dent, seemed  to  think  it  hopeless  to  expect  any- 
thing more  than  polite  answers  and  evasions,  and 
accordingly  returned  to  me,  leaving  Mr.  Power  to 
continue  the  negotiations.  He  seemed,  when  I  saw 
him,  to  be  annoyed  with  the  attitude  adopted  by  the 
President,  and  referred  to  him  asa  "  vulgar  old  dog." 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  147 

Charley,  Fanny,  and  myself,  then  went  over  to 
Philadelphia  to  see  the  Exhibition  which  was 
being  held  there  in  connection  with  the  centenary 
of  American  Independence.  We  stopped  at  an 
hotel  in  Chesnut  Street,  and  spent  several 
days  at  the  Exhibition  and  one  night  at  the 
theatre,  Charley  appearing  to  be  distinctly 
glad  of  the  relaxation  after  what  must  have 
been  his  strenuous  though  secret  efforts  in  Par- 
liament. 

Whilst  at  the  Exhibition  he  spent  most  of  his 
time  in  the  Machinery  Hall,  where  he  took  special 
interest  in  the  stone-cutting  machinery,  which  he 
purposed  using  at  his  Avondale  quarries.  He  also 
devoted  a  great  deal  of  attention  to  the  railroad 
bridge  models,  and  also  to  models  of  road  bridges 
in  general.  He  stopped  for  some  time  before  a 
model  of  a  suspension  bridge  very  closely  re- 
sembling that  over  the  Warrior  River,  which  he  had 
seen  on  his  last  visit  to  Alabama.  Here,  again, 
what  attracted  him  was  not  so  much  the  bridge 
itself  as  the  design  of  the  roofing,  which  he  wished 
to  adapt  for  his  sawmills  and  cattle-sheds  at 
Avondale.  I  took  him  with  me  to  that  Fruit  Hall, 
and  explained  to  him  my  system  of  transporting 
frozen  peaches  by  rail.  This  idea,  which  was  my 
own  invention,  consisted  of  a  barrel  with  a  parti- 
tion for  ice  on  top,  which  could  be  rolled  anywhere 
without  damaging  the  fruit  inside.  As  my  peaches, 
when  sent  by  these  means,  always  arrived  in  first- 


148      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

rate  condition,  the  idea  attracted  considerable 
attention  in  the  fruit  world. 

After  the  Philadelphia  Exhibition,  Charley  went 
down  to  Virginia  to  pay  another  visit  to  the  Clover 
Hill  coal-mine.  He  wanted  me  to  go  with  him, 
but  our  sister,  Mrs.  Thompson,  objected,  as  she 
said  that  if  the  two  of  us  went  together  there  was 
certain  to  be  a  railway  accident.  He  therefore 
went  alone  to  the  Clover  Hill  mines,  but  did  not 
seem  impressed  with  them  as  an  investment. 

Shortly  after  this  he  returned  to  England, 
leaving  Mr.  O'Connor  Power  behind.  Imme- 
diately on  his  arrival  at  Liverpool  he  delivered  a 
stirring  speech  on  the  future  of  Home  Rule,  and  the 
prejudice  towards  Ireland  which  existed  in  Eng- 
land. He  said  that  he  had  been  greatly  impressed 
during  his  American  visit  by  seeing  in  New  York 
a  review  in  which  six  thousand  militia  took  part. 
He  referred  to  the  benefit  which  a  force  on  those 
lines  would  be  to  Ireland  under  Home  Rule. 
While  it  would  be  used  to  protect  the  interests  of 
Ireland  as  an  independent  nation,  there  would  be 
no  danger  of  its  being  used  against  England  or  any 
other  part  of  the  British  Empire,  as  so  many  of  the 
opponents  of  Irish  political  liberty  always  alleged 
would  be  the  case. 


CHAPTER   X 
OBSTRUCTION 

A  Start  in  Earnest. 

From  1877  onwards  Charley  openly  pursued  his 
policy  of  obstruction,  aided  by  Biggar,  Captain 
Nolan,  and  the  rapidly  growing  section  of  the 
Irish  party.  The  official  leader,  Mr.  Butt,  was 
placed  in  a  very  awkward  position.  He  did  not 
wish  to  adopt,  or  even  to  countenance,  the  system 
of  obstruction,  but  neither  did  he  wish  definitely 
to  set  his  face  against  it,  and,  by  attempting  to 
coerce  the  more  extreme  members  of  his  party, 
cause  a  definite  split  in  their  ranks.  His  passive 
attitude,  however,  did  much  to  lose  him  ultimately 
the  leadership,  and  to  build  up  Charley's  undoubted 
claims  to  that  position. 

Charley  first  devoted  his  attention  to  a  series  of 
English  Bills,  of  which  the  Prisons  Bill  and  the 
Marine  Mutiny  Bill  were  the  principal  measures. 
He,  however,  did  not  adopt  the  obvious  course  of 
simply  opposing  these  Bills  section  by  section,  but 
brought  forward  many  amendments  which  were 
distinct  impi  ovements  on  the  measures  in  the  form 
in  which  they  were  introduced.     It  was  due  in  a 

149 


150      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

very  large  degree  to  his  amendments  that  the 
practice  of  flogging  in  the  army  and  navy  was 
finally  abolished. 

When  the  Government  attempted  to  pass  the 
clauses  of  the  Mutiny  Bill  in  large  batches,  Charley 
insisted  that  they  should  be  taken  separately,  much 
to  the  disgust  of  the  English  members,  who  saw  in 
them  little  to  discuss.  Finally,  when  the  temper 
of  the  House  had  risen  to  fever-heat.  Butt  came  in, 
and  in  a  speech  which  expressed  his  unchangeable 
belief  in  constitutional  methods,  and  at  the  same 
time  his  weakness  as  a  leader,  deplored  the  system 
of  obstruction,  and  disowned  any  responsibility 
for  Charley's  action.  This  speech,  which  was  met 
with  loud  applause  from  the  English  members  on 
both  sides  of  the  House,  did  Butt  irreparable 
damage  among  his  own  party,  and  especially 
aroused  the  indignation  of  the  Irish  in  America, 
who  became  more  determined  than  ever  to  support 
Charley.  A  correspondence  between  Charley  and 
Butt  followed,  but  only  served  to  widen  the  breach, 
as  Charley  claimed  under  the  terms  of  his  party 
pledge  to  have  full  independence  of  action  except 
with  regard  to  Irish  measures. 

On  July  2,  1877,  Charley  kept  the  House  sitting 
from  4  p.m.  to  7.15  a.m.  on  the  vote  for  the  Army 
Reserve.  This  system  of  obstruction,  of  which  the 
foregoing  was  only  a  typical  instance,  exasperated 
the  English  members  to  such  a  degree  that  they 
naturally  sought  means  of  retaliation.     New  rules 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  151 

were  brought  in  on  July  27  by  Sir  Stafford  North- 
cote,  who  proposed  that  if  a  member  was  twice 
declared  out  of  order  he  should  be  suspended,  and 
that  motions  to  report  progress  and  to  like  effect 
could  only  be  moved  once  by  each  member  during 
a  debate. 

These  rules,  of  course,  were  carried  by  an 
immense  majority,  although  Charley  made  a 
spirited  defence  of  his  action. 


A  Record  Sitting. 

Hardly  had  these  rules  come  into  force,  when  a 
determined  effort  was  made  to  nullify  them.  The 
South  African  Bill  was  being  discussed,  and  Charley 
had  repeatedly  to  be  called  to  order;  but  his 
followers  kept  on  rising  with  motions  to  report 
progress  and  every  other  imaginable  device  for 
delay,  until  the  House  was  beside  itself  with  irrita- 
tion. The  sitting  was  dragged  on  through  the  early 
hours  of  the  morning,  in  spite  of  a  denouncement 
of  the  obstructionists'  method  by  Butt,  and  even 
an  appeal  from  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer 
for  some  consideration  on  the  part  of  the 
minority.  Charley's  little  army  took  turns  for 
rest,  and  finally  the  House  adjourned  at  two 
o'clock  the  next  afternoon,  after  a  sitting  lasting 
for  twenty-six  hours  on  end,  which  constituted 
a  record. 

At  the  meetings  held  outside  the  House,  and 


152       CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

particularly  in  Dublin,  my  brother's  methods  were 
warmly  supported,  and  he  declared  his  full  inten- 
tion of  continuing  them  until  a  proper  considera- 
tion was  given  to  Irish  measures. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  Charley  entered  into 
a  close  though  informal  alliance  with  the  Fenians. 
I  happened  to  be  visiting  Mr.  Patrick  Ford,  of 
the  Irish  World,  at  his  house  in  Brooklyn,  some 
time  after  the  compact  between  Charley  and  the 
Fenians  became  recognized  by  the  mass  of  the 
members  of  the  Clan-na-Gael,  although  not  by 
the  leaders.  Mr.  Ford,  who  was  sitting  by  me  on 
the  sofa,  said:  **  I  don't  believe  in  j^our  brother's 
constitutional  policy,  but  we  will  give  him  a 
chance." 

In  1878  a  Home  Rule  Conference  was  held  in 
Dublin,  which  proved  an  important  turning-point 
in  Charle^^'s  career.  He  had  already  been  elected 
President  of  the  newly-formed  Home  Rule  League, 
and  on  this  occasion  both  Butt  and  himself 
announced  their  respective  policies  so  clearly  that 
it  was  obvious  that  a  hopeless  split  had  occurred. 
Butt,  moreover,  was  rapidly  breaking  down  in 
health,  and  evidently  felt  his  position  keenly. 
Their  last  public  encounter  occurred  at  a  meeting 
held  in  Dublin  on  February  5,  1879;  a  resolution 
in  favour  of  Butt  was  carried  by  a  small  majority, 
but  three  months  later  he  died. 

His  successor  was  Mr.  William  Shaw,  a  com- 
promise between  the  two  parties,  though  it  was 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  153 

already  felt  that  Charley's  leadership  was  not  far 
deferred. 

In  the  meantime  obstruction  had  been  rampant 
in  the  House,  and  it  is  notable  that  in  opposing  the 
Government  Army  Bill,  which  still  permitted 
flogging  to  be  employed  for  certain  offences, 
Charley  had  among  his  supporters  Mr.  Joseph 
Chamberlain. 


The  Land  League. 

In  1878  Mr.  Michael  Davitt,  who  had  been 
released  on  ticket- of -leave  after  serving  nearly 
half  of  his  sentence  of  fifteen  years'  penal  servitude 
for  treason-felony,  came  over  to  America  to  see  his 
mother  at  Philadelphia.  I  met  Davitt  in  New 
York  before  his  departure  for  Ireland,  and  my 
mother  gave  him  some  messages  to  convey  across 
the  water  to  Charley.  From  the  few  conversa- 
tions we  had,  it  appeared  that  Davitt's  ideas  were 
altogether  on  the  same  lines  as  Charley's  with 
regard  to  the  land  question  and  the  policy  of 
establishing  a  peasant  proprietary,  and  they  also 
agreed  that  nothing  could  be  accomplished  in 
Parliament  without  adopting  the  most  aggressive 
measures. 

On  his  return  to  Ireland,  Davitt  and  Charley 
co-operated  with  regard  to  the  land  agitation. 

At  this  time  the  Land  League  was  also  spreading 
in   Ireland,    and   my   sister   Fanny   became   the 


154      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

President  of  the  Ladies'  Land  League  in  America, 
of  which  body  my  mother  was  also  an  enthusi- 
astic supporter.  I  also  attended  many  meetings 
of  the  League,  but  was  not  impressed  at  that  time 
with  the  interest  shown  by  the  American  Irish  in 
their  own  country. 

The  Clan-na-Gael,  which  was  the  Irish  branch  of 
the  Fenian  movement,  were  doing  their  best  at 
this  time  to  enrol  Charley  in  their  branch;  but 
though  he  was  in  close  correspondence  with  them, 
and  had  many  meetings  with  their  supporters  in 
Ireland,  he  never  definitely  committed  himself  to 
their  pohcy.  Still,  at  that  time  they  quite 
recognized  that  he  was  the  only  possible  leader  of 
the  Irish  party  in  Parliament,  while  he  on  his  part 
knew  that  he  could  not  get  on  without  their 
support. 

Charley  at  this  period  was  largely  engaged  in 
setting  to  work  the  great  organization  of  the  Land 
League,  meetings  being  held  and  branches  formed 
in  the  towns  and  villages  throughout  Ireland. 
The  agrarian  agitation  was,  in  fact,  at  its  height, 
and  rents  were  intolerably  high  and  evictions  of 
daily  occurrence.  I  think,  however,  that  the 
landlords  themselves  were  not  so  much  to  blame 
as  their  agents.  Charley  himself  was  a  popular 
and  considerate  landlord,  thoroughlj^  under- 
standing the  condition  of  his  tenants,  though 
they  very  often  took  advantage  of  his  good- 
nature  and    not  only  did  not  pay   their  rents, 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  155 

but  almost  denuded  his  Aughavannagh  shooting 
of  game. 

Still,  it  must  be  remembered  that  Ireland  was 
at  this  time  under  the  shadow  of  the  great  famine 
of  1879-80,  when  the  payment  of  rents  was  literally 
impossible,  and  actual  starvation  prevailed  to  a 
horrible  degree. 


CHAPTER  XI 
A  TRIUMPHAL  TOUR 

An  Appeal  to  America. 

On  December  21,  1880,  Charley  and  Mr.  Dillon 
left  Ireland  for  New  York  to  appeal,  on  behalf  of 
the  Irish  people,  for  funds  to  relieve  the  distress 
caused  by  the  great  famine  of  1879-80,  and  to 
enlist  the  sympathy  of  the  American  people,  and 
specially  of  the  American  Irish,  in  favour  of  the 
land  campaign. 

I  was  in  America  at  the  time,  and  knew  pretty 
well  the  circumstances  and  causes  of  Irish  distress 
and  the  great  need  for  Home  Rule.  The  Irish 
question,  to  a  certain  extent,  had  already  been 
discussed  pretty  well  throughout  the  United 
States ;  but  it  was  not  fully  taken  up  until  Charley 
and  Mr.  Dillon  came  over  and  explained  matters. 
If  they  had  not  visited  America,  the  people  there 
would  never  have  taken  more  than  a  passive 
interest  in  the  distress  existing  in  Ireland,  owing 
to  their  ignorance  of  its  extent  and  the  best  way 
to  remedy  it. 

The  first  meeting  was  held  in  the  New  York 
Stock  Exchange,  where  they  were,  as  a  special 

156 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  157 

compliment  on  the  part  of  the  committee  of  the 
Exchange,  allowed  to  deliver  an  address  to  the 
members.  The  brokers,  as  I  was  told  afterwards 
by  one  of  them — Mr.  Petty,  an  intimate  friend 
of  our  family — were  prepared  to  give  Charley  and 
Mr.  Dillon  either  a  hostile  or  a  hospitable  reception, 
according  to  their  opinion  of  the  speeches  de- 
livered. On  the  whole,  the  impression  among 
them  before  the  arrival  of  Charley  and  Mr.  Dillon 
was  that  they  were  a  couple  of  adventurers  para- 
ding the  Irish  cause  for  their  own  profit.  They 
had  never  before  seen,  or  probably  heard  of,  such 
a  thing  as  an  Irish  landlord  taking  up  the  cause 
of  the  Irish  peasantry.  However,  they  decided 
to  allow  Charley  and  Mr.  Dillon  a  fair  hearing, 
although,  if  they  considered  their  speeches  objec- 
tionable, they  intended  to  pelt  them  out  of  the 
Exchange — so,  at  least,  I  was  told  by  a  number  of 
brokers  whom  I  met. 

On  the  appearance  of  the  two  speakers,  the 
assembled  brokers  were  so  greatly  surprised  at 
their  quiet  manner,  and  earnest  and  candid  way 
of  talking,  that,  instead  of  a  hostile  reception, 
they  accorded  them  a  most  enthusiastic  one,  and 
after  the  speeches  were  over  the  two  orators 
found  themselves  the  heroes  of  the  occasion. 

The  whole  of  New  York  after  this  went  mad 
over  the  Irish  cause,  and  the  ambassadors  of 
Home  Rule  were  cordially  received  by  all  grades 
of  society.     Among  the  principal  functions  was 


158      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

a  grand  reception  given  to  them  at  the  Fifth 
Avenue  Hotel,  where  our  mother  welcomed  her 
darling  son  with  natural  pleasure  in  the  hour  of 
his  triumph.  Large  numbers  of  Irish  and  native 
Americans  were  present  at  the  reception,  and 
overwhelmed  my  brother  with  congratulations 
and  promises  of  support.  From  New  York  they 
travelled  night  and  day  for  about  two  months, 
visiting  all  the  great  cities,  and  covering  a  distance 
by  rail  of  over  i,6oo  miles.  I  was  in  the  South 
at  the  time,  but  our  mother  when  we  met  gave 
me  a  vivid  description  of  all  that  had  happened. 
Charley  had  written  to  me  saying  that  he  intended 
coming  down  to  Atlanta,  Georgia,  where  we  were 
preparing  a  great  reception  for  them.  Such  were 
the  numbers  of  invitations,  however,  which  he 
received  from  all  parts  of  America  and  Canada 
that  he  had  to  write  and  cancel  the  engagement, 
though  he  said  he  wished  very  much  to  see  me 
during  his  stay  in  America.  His  hurried  return, 
owing  to  the  dissolution  of  Parliament,  prevented 
him,  however,  from  doing  so. 

After  leaving  New  York  he  went  to  Brooklyn, 
where  he  made  a  great  speech.  During  the 
course  of  it  he  said : 

We  have  come  here  to  try  and  help  our 
poor  people,  who  are  actually  starving.  They 
want  to  get  the  land  of  Ireland  to  prevent 
these  yearly  occurrences,  and  I  will  help 
them,  so  that  they  will  not  come  here  again 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  159 

asking  for  help.  If  the  Irish  farmers,  especi- 
ally the  small  ones,  who  are  so  badly  hit 
in  these  bad  times,  owned  their  own  lands, 
there  would  not  be  famines.  Therefore  we 
ask  3'ou  to  support  the  constitutional  methods 
which  our  party  has  inaugurated.  We  do 
not  ask  you  to  send  armed  expeditions  over 
to  Ireland,  but  we  ask  you  to  help  us  in  pre- 
venting the  people  who  have  taken  our 
advice,  and  who  are  exhibiting  an  attitude 
of  devotion  which  has  never  been  surpassed, 
from  being  starved  to  death. 

That  was  a  typical  exposition  of  his  policy  as 
delivered  from  platform  after  platform  during  his 
tour.  Here  are  a  few  other  striking  sentences 
from  other  speeches:  '*  I  feel  confident  that  we 
shall  kill  the  Irish  landlord  system;  and  when 
we  have  given  Ireland  to  the  people  of  Ireland,  we 
shall  have  laid  the  foundation  upon  which  to  build 
up  our  Irish  nation."  "  I  am  bound  to  admit 
that  it  is  the  duty  of  every  Irishman  to  shed  the 
last  drop  of  his  blood  in  order  to  obtain  his  rights, 
if  there  were  a  probable  chance  of  success.  Yet 
at  the  same  time  we  all  recognize  the  great  re- 
sponsibility of  hurling  our  unarmed  people  on  the 
points  of  British  bayonets." 

His  progress  through  the  Western  cities  met  with 
unfailing  enthusiasm.  Not  only  the  American 
Irish  came  in  their  thousands  to  cheer  him,  but 
also   the   Americans,    and,   strange   to   say,    the 


i6o      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

English.  While  Charley  was  on  his  lightning 
tour,  I  was  present  at  the  great  meeting  at  Atlanta, 
Georgia,  at  which  Mr.  P.  J.  Moran,  the  editor  of 
the  Atlanta  Constitution,  was  chairman.  The 
house  was  packed  with  Irish,  Americans,  and 
English;  but  throughout  the  speeches  there  was 
not  a  word  of  dissent  uttered  by  the  large  and 
mixed  audience.  I  made  my  first  speech  there 
on  behalf  of  my  brother's  cause. 

After  the  United  States,  Charley  visited  Canada 
with  Mr.  Healy  (who  had  come  over  from  Ireland 
to  join  him  during  his  tour).  The  Bishop  of 
Toronto,  hearing  of  Charley's  approaching  visit, 
wrote  a  letter  imploring  him  not  to  come,  as  he 
was  afraid  of  violent  measures  being  adopted  by 
the  Orangemen  of  Canada.  Charley,  however, 
relying  upon  the  fact  that  he  was  a  Protestant, 
and  that  the  main  object  of  his  visit  was  to  collect 
money  on  behalf  of  his  starving  fellow-country- 
men, anticipated  no  trouble  from  the  Orangemen, 
and  decided  to  disregard  the  Bishop's  warning,  in 
which,  as  matters  turned  out,  he  was  quite 
justified. 

Our  mother  and  Fanny,  who  were  in  New  York, 
advised  him  at  first  not  to  go ;  but  when  they  found 
that  his  mind  was  firmly  made  up,  they  wished  very 
much  to  accompany  him.  This,  however,  Charley 
refused  to  hear  of,  as  he  did  not  think  that  they 
could  stand  the  long  and  hurried  railway  journey. 
Directly  he  arrived  in  Canada,  his  first  act  was  to 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  i6i 

send  his  mother  a  reassuring  telegram,  knowing 
that  she  would  be  intensely  anxious  during  his 
absence. 

They  had  big  meetings  in  Toronto  and  Montreal, 
where  immense  enthusiasm  was  shown  by  every- 
one, Charley  telling  me  afterwards  that  the 
Orangemen  not  only  listened  to  him,  but  often 
applauded. 

His  Canadian  tour  was  suddenly  cut  short 
owing  to  the  unexpected  dissolution  of  Parlia- 
ment. He  had  to  hurry  back  to  New  York  to 
catch  the  boat  to  Ireland,  having  during  his  short 
visit  collected  over  $200,000  (£40,000).  An  ex- 
ample of  the  spirit  in  which  donations  were  made 
was  told  to  me  afterwards  by  Charley.  After  he 
had  made  a  vigorous  speech  at  one  of  the  large 
American  cities,  describing  the  awful  results  of 
the  famine,  and  urging  Home  Rule  as  the  only 
possible  remedy,  a  man  came  up  to  him  and 
handed  him  notes  for  %^o,  saying:  "That's  five 
dollars  for  bread,  and  twenty-five  for  lead." 

Finesse  and  the  Fenians. 

Although  Charley's  tour  proved  to  be  such  a 
huge  success,  he  might  almost  have  been  said  to 
have  landed  in  a  hostile  country.  Although  he 
had  to  a  great  extent  gained  the  confidence  of 
the  rank  and  file  of  the  Fenians,  both  in  Ireland 
and  America,  neither  he  nor  his  policy  was  looked 

II 


i62      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

upon  with  any  great  favour  by  the  executive  of 
the  Clan-na-Gael,  the  American  Fenian  organiza- 
tion. From  the  moment  he  landed  he  was  in 
negotiation  with  the  leaders.  His  position  was 
a  very  difficult  one,  as,  then  as  ever,  he  did  not 
wish  to  subscribe  to  the  full  programme  of  the 
Clan-na-Gael,  which  would  have  considerably 
hampered  his  freedom,  and  prevented  his  being, 
as  he  practically  was  even  then,  the  absolute 
leader  of  the  Irish  Nationalist  party.  Constitu- 
tional methods,  embellished  of  course  by  obstruc- 
tion, were,  in  his  opinion,  the  best  and  quickest 
method  of  securing  justice  for  Ireland.  He  did 
not  den}^  that,  if  that  course  failed,  it  might  be 
necessary  tohave  to  resort  to  armed  force.  But  he 
never  came  to  a  point  where  he  actually  considered 
violence  to  be  inevitable.  The  Fenian  idea  of 
putting  violence  before  constitutional  warfare 
never  met  with  his  approval.  He  disliked  and 
even  despised  it,  as  being  certain  to  alienate 
public  sympathy,  and  at  the  same  time  as  being 
extremely  unlikely  to  effect  its  own  object.  Still, 
if  he  disliked  Fenianism,  and  declined  to  commit 
himself  to  its  principles,  he  was  bound  at  that  stage 
of  his  career  to  keep  on  good  terms  with  the  Clan- 
na-Gael  as  a  body,  on  account  of  its  large  member- 
ship and  perfect  organization. 

The  leaders  of  the  Clan-na-Gael  were,  like  the 
Irish  Fenians,  greatly  impressed  by  Charley's  cold 
manner,  and  the  way  in  which,  though  he  was 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  163 

ready  to  meet  and  discuss  matters  with  them,  he 
never  openly  courted  their  support. 

That  was  pretty  well  the  attitude  which  the 
Clan-na-Gael  adopted  when  once  they  had  seen 
Charley  at  close  quarters.  A  few  of  the  more 
extreme  among  the  extremists,  however,  refused 
to  have  anything  to  do  with  one  tarred  with  the 
brush  of  constitutionalism — a  fact  to  which  he 
owed  his  hostile  reception  at  Enniscorthy  on  his 
return  home. 

Before  leaving  America,  Charley  organized  a 
branch  of  the  Land  League.  In  spite  of  his 
hurried  return,  the  American  Land  League,  as 
this  body  was  known,  was  pushed  forward  with 
the  greatest  speed,  monster  meetings  being  held 
throughout  the  States  to  collect  funds  and  spread 
the  principles  of  the  organization.  Our  mother, 
Fanny,  Miss  Ford  (a  sister  of  Patrick  Ford),  and 
myself,  attended  all  the  principal  meetings  in  and 
around  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Brooklyn,  and 
Jersey  City.  Fanny  was  very  busy  in  those  days 
organizing  the  Ladies'  Land  League,  of  which  she 
was  President.  Friction  often  occurred,  but  Fanny 
was  popular  and  kept  a  cool  head,  and  so  managed 
to  preserve  very  good  order  at  her  meetings,  which 
I  often  attended.  One  day,  greatly  to  her  dis- 
gust, an  incident  occurred  at  Providence,  Rhode 
Island.  She  was  in  a  house  where  there  were  a 
number  of  people,  including  some  priests,  who  did 
not  know  her,  but  who  started  a  lively  discussion 


i64      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

as  to  Fanny  and  Charley  Parnell.  From  the  tone 
they  adopted,  they  belonged  to  the  extreme 
section  of  Mr.  Patrick  Ford's  party,  and  were 
therefore  bitter  opponents  of  our  mere  consti- 
tutional methods.  The  result  was  that  Fanny 
heard  some  very  nasty  remarks  made  about  both 
our  brother  and  herself,  and  went  away  very  angry 
and  annoyed  at  this  want  of  appreciation  of  their 
efforts  for  the  Irish  cause.  Such  instances  were, 
I  am  glad  to  say,  very  uncommon. 

Of  the  success  of  Charley's  visit  to  America  and 
of  its  lasting  influence  on  his  career  there  can  be  no 
doubt,  and  it  was,  I  know,  terribly  galling  to  him 
to  have  to  cut  it  short  so  abruptly.  But  he  fully 
realized  the  importance  of  the  General  Election 
which  was  just  about  to  take  place. 


CHAPTER  XII 

LEADER  AT   LAST 

A  Prophet  in  his  Own  Country. 

Directly  he  arrived  back  in  Ireland,  Charley 
found  himself  at  once  in  the  thick  of  things.  As 
I  have  said,  in  spite  of  the  Clan-na-Gael  as  a  body 
being  the  reverse  of  hostile  towards  him,  a  certain 
section  of  the  executive  was  firmly  opposed  to  his 
constitutional  policy.  When  he  stepped  off  the 
boat  at  Queenstown,  a  reputation  of  extremists 
handed  him  an  address  stating  that  they  con- 
sidered it  to  be  hopeless  to  obtain  redress  for  the 
ills  of  Ireland  by  means  of  Parliamentary  repre- 
sentation, and  adding  that  the  Nationalists  of  the 
country  had  determined  to  take  no  part  in  the 
forthcoming  or  any  future  elections..  This,  how- 
ever, was  not  quite  so  terrible  as  the  wording 
would  imply,  and  simply  expressed  the  views  of 
a  small  body  of  Irish  Fenians. 

At  Enniscorthy,  however,  he  came  for  the  first 
time  face  to  face  with  an  actively  hostile  audience. 
His  speech  was  interrupted  to  such  a  degree  that 
he  had  to  abandon  it,  although  he  stood  calm  and 
unconcerned  for  a  considerable  time  endeavouring 
to  obtain  a  hearing. 

165 


i66      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

That  this  was  not  the  general  feeling  towards 
him  in  Ireland  was  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  he 
was  nominated  (and  subsequently  elected)  by  no 
fewer  than  three  constituencies— Meath,  Cork 
City,  and  Mayo.  Between  these  three,  far  apart 
though  they  were,  he  dashed  backwards  and  for- 
wards incessantly,  delivering  a  series  of  stirring 
speeches  wherever  he  went.  When  the  polls 
were  declared,  he  decided  to  choose  Cork  City  out 
of  the  three  seats  which  were  at  his  disposal. 

With  the  election  of  the  new  Parliament  came 
also  the  election  of  a  chairman  of  the  Irish 
Nationalist  party.  Charley  was  urged  by  a  num- 
ber of  friends  not  to  allow  himself  to  be  nominated 
for  the  position.  Although  an  adept  at  biding 
his  time,  he  refused  to  do  so  in  this  instance, 
because,  with  his  invariable  knowledge  of  the 
critical  moment  and  the  way  to  use  it,  he  knew 
that  the  time  had  come  for  him  to  assume  the 
reins  of  power. 

The  vote  when  taken  was  a  close  one,  as  many 
of  the  party  preferred  the  moderation  of  Shaw, 
the  successor  of  Butt.     The  result  was  as  follows: 


Parnell 

23  votes. 

Shaw 

..     18      „ 

Majority 

..       5      „ 

The  names  of  Charley's   supporters   and   op- 
ponents on  the  occasion  of  this  fateful  election  are 


STEPS  TO  THE  THRONE  167 

worth  recording,  in  view  of  subsequent  events. 
They  are — 

For. — Barry,  Biggar,  Byrne,  Corbet,  Dr. 
Cummins,  Daly,  Dawson,  Flanigan,  Gill, 
Lalor,  J.  Leahy,  Leamy,  McCarthy,  McConn, 
Mahon,  Marum,  Arthur  O'Connor,  T.  P. 
O'Connor,  O'Gorman,  O'Kelly,  O'Shea,  W.  H. 
O'Sullivan,  Sexton,  T.  D.  Sullivan. 

Against. — Blake,  Brooks,  Callan,  Colthurst, 
Errington,  Foley,  Foy,  Gabbett,  Gray, 
P.  Martin,  McFarlane,  McKenna,  Meldon, 
Sir  P.  O'Brien,  R.  Power,  Smithwick,  Smyth, 
Synan. 

The  new  Parliament  was  entirely  in  the  hands 
of  the  Liberals,  Mr.  Gladstone's  supporters  num- 
bering no  less  than  349,  as  against  243  Tories  and 
60  Home  Rulers. 

This  was  the  position  when  Charley,  after  brief 
but  crowded  five  years  in  politics,  became  the 
leader  of  his  party,  the  terror  of  both  English 
parties,  and  a  household  word  throughout  the  two 
continents.  Even  now,  when  he  had  obtained 
the  leadership,  his  path  was  by  no  means  smooth 
before  him.  He  was  leader,  it  is  true,  but  of  a 
split  party ;  he  had  the  support  of  the  bulk  of  the 
Fenians,  but  the  active  opposition  of  a  large 
number  of  their  leaders.  Little  had  been  achieved, 
and  much  was  urgently  needed  in  the  way  of  legis- 
lative reform  for  his  countrymen,  who  were  being 
decimated  by  famine  and  evicted  from  their  homes 


i68      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

in  thousands.  England  appeared  as  unsympa- 
thetic towards  Irish  demands  as  ever,  and  Home 
Rule  in  any  shape  or  form  as  far  off  as  it  had  been 
at  any  time  since  the  last  Parliament  sat  in 
College  Green.  Those  were  the  obstacles  with 
which  he  had  to  contend  when  he  became  chief. 
It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that,  in  spite  of  all  these 
and  many  other  hindrances,  he  succeeded  in 
achieving  as  much  as  he  did  for  his  beloved 
countrymen. 


BOOK   III 

IN  POWER 

"  Say,  who  is  the  chief  spurring  forth  to  the  fray, 
The  wave  of  whose  spear  holds  yon  armed  array  ? 
And  he  who  stands  scorning  the  thousands  that  sweep, 
An  army  of  wolves,  over  shepherdless  sheep  ?" 

Vision  of  King  Brian. 


CHAPTER  I 
MY   BROTHER'S   PERSONALITY 

The  Man  of  the  Moment. 

I  THINK  it  would  be  fitting  to  give  some  idea,  so 
far  as  I  can  convey  it  in  cold  print,  of  my  brother's 
appearance  and  outward  manner  during  the  period 
of  his  supremacy.  I  am  judging,  not  only  from 
my  own  personal  recollection,  but  from  that  of 
many  intimate  friends  who  were  connected  with 
Charley  at  this  stage  of  his  career. 

His  appearance  was  always  a  striking  one.  Tall 
and  thin  (except  during  a  period  from  about  1885 
to  1890,  when  he  became  rather  stout),  he  always 
held  himself  erect,  though  without  stiffness,  until 
the  strain  of  his  serious  illness  and  the  final  party 
split  prematurely  aged  him.  His  hair  was  a 
darkish  brown,  with  tinges  of  tan  or  auburn.  He 
wore  it  rather  long  behind,  curling  slightly  up- 
wards from  the  back  of  his  neck.  On  his  entrance 
into  Parliament  in  1875  he  was  clean-shaven,  with 
the  exception  of  side- whiskers,  but  by  1880  he  had 
grown  a  beard  of  considerable  length,  and  a  long, 
somewhat  drooping  moustache. 

His  complexion  was  pale,  but  with  a  healthy 

171 


172      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

pallor.  His  white  face  contrasted  vividly  with 
his  hair,  and  accentuated  the  brilliancy  of  his  dark 
grey  eyes,  with  their  steady  and  at  the  same  time 
far-away  look.  This,  with  his  long  features  and 
firm  lips  curving  slightly  downwards,  gave  him 
a  somewhat  melancholy  appearance,  though  this 
was  not  really  borne  out  by  his  character,  which 
was  lively  at  times,  and  at  all  events  philosophical. 
It  was  his  appearance  and  his  habitually  reserved 
manner  that  caused  many  to  believe  that  he  had 
no  sense  of  humour,  and  never  made  a  joke. 

This,  however,  was  by  no  means  the  case.  He 
was  always  specially  fond  of  quizzing  me  with  a 
kind  of  dry  but  always  good-natured  humour,  and 
was  fond  of  making,  among  his  intimate  friends, 
short,  pointed  jokes  about  men  and  events.  This 
was  the  case  even  in  his  later  days,  when  he  was 
under  the  full  oppression  of  a  fight  against  hopeless 
odds. 

I  remember  The  O'Donoghue  of  the  Glens,  who 
was  an  inseparable  companion  of  his  during  the 
dark  days  of  1890  and  1891,  telling  me  several 
incidents  to  that  effect.  On  one  occasion  he  was 
travelling  from  Tipperary  to  Athlone  in  the  course 
of  his  final  campaign  of  successive  defeats.  One 
of  his  fellow-members,  Mr.  Hayden,  was  sitting 
opposite  to  him,  and,  as  was  not  an  unusual  custom, 
had  put  his  railway  ticket  in  the  band  of  his  hat. 
Charlie  looked  at  him  fixedly  for  sometime,  with 
a  twinkle  in  his  eye,  and  suddenly  burst  forth  with 


IN  POWER  173 

the  remark:  "  Wh}^  on  earth,  Hayden,  do  you  put 
your  ticket  in  your  hat  Uke  that  ?  Everyone  must 
be  thinking  that  you  have  just  picked  up  the  hat 
as  a  bargain  at  an  auction."  Poor  Hay  den  very 
shamefacedly  transferred  the  offending  ticket  to 
his  pocket,  amidst  the  laughter  of  his  companions. 
It  was  when  they  were  being  given  an  enthusi- 
astic send-off  from  Athlone  Station  that,  The 
O'Donoghue  tells  me,  another  little  incident 
occurred  which  proved  that,  even  when  in  bad 
health  and  wearied  to  death  with  illness,  travelling, 
and  the  strain  of  continual  speeches,  he  could  still 
appreciate  the  humorous  side  of  life.  Amongst 
those  on  the  crowded  platform  who  were  wildly 
waving  handkerchiefs,  flags,  and  sticks,  was  one 
young  peasant  woman  who,  having  neither  hand- 
kerchief, flag  nor  stick  to  wave,  and  being  entirely 
carried  away  by  the  enthusiasm  of  the  moment, 
was  to  be  seen  wildly  swinging  about  her  unfor- 
tunate baby  in  the  air.  Charley  noticed  the 
incident  at  once,  and  watched  this  human  sema- 
phore display  for  a  few  moments  with  a  twinkle  in 
his  eye,  which  was  as  near  as  he  generally  came  to 
laughing.  Then  it  proved  too  much  for  him,  and 
he  laughed  outright,  and,  turning  to  his  companions 
in  the  carriage,  directed  their  attention  to  this 
quaint  expression  of  loyalty. 


174      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 


The  Warmth  beneath  the  Ice. 

I  have  spoken  of  his  habitual  coldness  of  manner, 
and  the  mysterious  way  in  which,  in  spite  of  it,  or 
even  because  of  it,  he  used  to  draw  all  towards  him, 
as  moths  to  a  candle.  He  certainly  rarely  unbent 
in  expression,  and  the  tone  of  his  voice  very  rarely 
varied.  But  his  eyes  were  full  of  expression,  and 
the  manner  in  which  he  accompanied  an  abrupt 
and  unalterable  decision  with  a  sudden  winning 
smile,  which  seemed  to  light  up  his  whole  face  like 
a  ray  of  sunshine,  never  failed  to  render  acceptable, 
and  even  welcome,  the  curtness  of  the  actual  words 
he  used.  His  was  indeed  a  mesmerism  of  manner, 
and  neither  I,  who  so  frequently  experienced  it  and 
came  under  its  sway,  nor  any  of  those  who  were 
accustomed  to  see  him  daily,  can  actually  describe 
it  in  so  many  words. 

During  this,  the  summit  of  his  career,  he  took 
extreme  care  with  regard  to  his  dress  and  personal 
appearance.  He  did  not  often  wear  black,  except 
when  compelled  to  do  so  at  ceremonial  functions, 
but  generally  preferred  tweeds  of  a  dark  shade, 
brown  being  perhaps  his  favourite  colour.  To- 
wards green,  although  it  was  his  national  colour, 
he  always  had  the  strongest  aversion,  as  I  shall 
explain  in  a  chapter  devoted  to  his  many  curious 
superstitions  (see  Appendix  A).  He  wore  rather 
low   turned-down    collars,    not  unlike   those    for 


IN  POWER  175 

which  Mr.  Gladstone  was  famous,  but  without  the 
long  pointed  ends.  For  tie  he  generally  wore  a 
cravat  (blue  being,  I  think,  its  usual  colour),  with 
a  simple  pearl  or  diamond  pin  in  the  centre. 

In  walking  he  held  himself  extremely  erect,  and 
took  long,  though  not  hurried,  strides.  Although 
I  am  not  an  exceptionally  slow  walker  myself,  I 
generally  found  it  pretty  hard  to  keep  up  with  him 
when  we  were  out  together,  and  the  more  intent 
he  happened  to  be  upon  his  secret  thoughts,  the 
faster  he  seemed  to  go.  To  his  habit  of  thinking 
deeply  when  walking  was  due  the  fact  that  he  paid 
little  attention  to  people  or  things  on  his  way, 
guiding  himself,  it  would  seem,  chiefly  by  instinct ; 
yet,  though  he  would  appear  to  be  entirely  ab- 
sorbed in  his  own  thoughts,  he  would  be  by  no 
means  oblivious  of  what  was  being  said  to  him, 
though  he  appeared  to  take  no  notice  whatever  of 
it.  Yet  he  often  startled  one  by  uttering  a  sudden 
abrupt  question  relating  to  something  that  had 
been  said  to  him  some  time  before,  which  showed 
that  he  must  have  grasped  every  detail  of  the  con- 
versation. 

When  speaking  in  public  he  stood  up  rather 
stiffly,  with  his  arms  folded  loosely  in  front  of  him, 
though  very  occasionally  I  have  seen  him  with 
them  clasped  behind  his  back.  This  was  an 
attitude  which  he  had  contracted  in  very  early 
days.  He  spoke  in  a  rather  low  voice,  but  slowly 
and  very  distinctly,  making  every  word  tell.     He 


176      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

rarely  emphasized  any  point,  however  important, 
by  raising  his  voice  or  by  gesticulating  in  any  way 
with  his  arms.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  always  had 
a  horror,  even  in  private  life,  of  speaking  loudly. 
I  remember  an  instance  of  this  one  time  when  we 
were  together  in  Avondale.  We  were  walking 
down  the  road  to  the  sawmills,  when  I  noticed  that 
some  of  his  men  working  on  a  field  near-by  were 
taking  things  very  easily,  even  for  Irish  labourers. 
I  said  to  him:  '*  Why  don't  you  call  out  to  those 
fellows,  Charley,  and  get  them  to  hurry  up  ? 
They  look  like  being  all  day  over  that  field,  if  they 
go  on  like  that."  He  replied,  with  a  shrug  of  his 
shoulders:  "  I  know  that;  but  if  I  wanted  to  make 
them  hear  I  should  have  to  shout,  and  I  dislike 
shouting."  We  walked  on  in  silence,  but  I 
believe,  with  his  invariably  retentive  memory,  he 
had  something  to  say  to  them  when  he  met  them 
next  at  close  quarters. 

Another  noticeable  feature  of  his  was  what 
might  be  almost  called  his  shyness.  He  had  an 
especial  dislike  for  the  company  of  strangers,  and, 
in  spite  of  his  experience,  always  felt  nervous  in 
the  presence  of  crowds,  frequently  clenching  his 
hands  when  speaking,  until  the  blood  came.  He 
was  once  being  entertained  at  a  large  public 
dinner,  and  a  huge  crowd  had  assembled  outside 
the  windows,  the  blinds  of  which  were  not  drawn, 
in  order  to  give  the  people  a  chance  of  seeing  their 
beloved  leader.     He  became  gradually  more  and 


IN  POWER  17; 

more  uneasy  under  the  concentrated  stare  of  the 
crowd,  and  began  to  fidget  in  his  seat  and  frown. 
Finally  he  called  out  to  The  O'Donoghue,  who 
was  sitting  some  distance  off,  out  of  sight  of  the 
crowd:  "  For  goodness'  sake,  O'Donoghue,  change 
places  with  me;  I  can't  stand  those  fellows  staring 
at  me  an}^  longer." 

On  another  occasion  he  and  I  were  travelling 
together  by  train,  when  a  number  of  enthusiasts 
followed  us  into  the  carriage.  He  straightened 
himself  from  his  usual  half-reclining  position 
in  the  corner  of  the  carriage,  which  he  adopted 
when  travelling,  and  said  to  me  pettishly: 
"  Can't  you  get  those  people  out  of  the  carriage, 
John?  they're  annoying  me."  I  had  to  set  about 
the  very  uncomfortable  task  of  going  up  to  each 
person  and  asking  him  whether  he  would  mind 
leaving  the  carriage,  as  my  brother  wished  to  be 
alone. 

Although  he  frequently  told  me  that  he  felt 
nervous,  often  to  a  painful  degree,  when  speaking 
in  public,  he  certainly  never  showed  any  trace  of 
it.  I  do  not  think  that  he  felt  anything  like  the 
same  nervousness  in  delivering  a  speech  in  the 
House  of  Commons  that  he  did  in  addressing  a 
meeting  of  his  own  people.  He  came  to  the 
House  with  what  he  had  to  say  cut  and  dried, 
for  the  English  to  take  or  leave  as  they  pleased, 
and  I  think  he  thoroughly  enjoyed  the  consterna- 
tion which  his  speeches,  which  always  had  some- 

13 


178      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

what  the  nature  of  an  ultimatum,  produced  among 
that  dignified  and  custom-observing  gathering. 

In  speaking  to  an  Irish  audience,  however,  I 
think  he  always  had  a  deep  desire  for  sympathy, 
though  he  disliked  any  noisy  demonstrations  of 
support.  But  he  was  always  quite  able  to  stand 
up  to  a  hostile,  and  even  threatening,  crowd? 
without  turning  a  hair. 


Charley's  Diet. 

Charley  was  never  a  heavy  eater,  and  his  state 
of  health,  which  was  delicate  from  boyhood,  obliged 
him  to  be  very  careful  as  to  what  he  took  to  eat. 

We  all  got  into  a  terribly  disorganized  habit  as 
to  meals  during  our  days  together  at  Avondale, 
after  our  father  had  died  and  our  mother  had  gone 
to  America.  The  only  meal  during  the  day  at 
which  all  the  family  and  visitors  were  certain  of 
meeting  was  dinner,  which  we  generally  had  about 
eight  o'clock  in  the  evening.  Charley  never  had 
breakfast  in  the  ordinary  English  sense,  but  made 
a  sort  of  combined  breakfast  and  lunch  when  he 
came  down,  which  was  usually  about  noon,  as  he 
was  in  the  habit  of  stopping  up  well  into  the  small 
hours  of  the  morning.  He  always  had  some  por- 
ridge and  cream  to  start  with,  and  a  mutton  chop 
formed  the  chief  portion  of  the  meal.  He  had 
toast,  usually  made  of  oatmeal  bread,  and  very 
often  barberry  jelly,  which  he  had  been  recom- 


IN  POWER  179 

mended,  for  his  throat,  Hke  his  chest,  was  always  a 
weak  spot  with  him.  He  was  also  very  fond  of 
tomatoes,  which  at  that  time  were  considered 
rather  a  luxury. 

He  made  a  good,  if  not  heavy,  breakfast,  and 
then  went  right  on  until  dinner  without  another 
sit-down  meal.  Afternoon  tea  he  thoroughly 
despised,  although  I  was  always  particularly  fond 
of  it  myself;  and  if  he  felt  in  need  of  anything 
during  the  day,  he  contented  himself  with  getting 
a  glass  of  buttermilk  from  the  nearest  cottage  or 
farm  where  he  happened  to  be. 

At  dinner  we  very  rarely  had  soup,  but  a  leg  of 
mutton  with  red  currant  jelly  generally  appeared, 
owing  to  its  being  Charley's  favourite  dish.  He 
did  not  like  salmon,  but  was  particularly  fond  of 
trout,  which  were  very  plentiful  round  Avondale. 
Very  often,  when  I  returned  just  before  dinner  from 
a  day's  fishing,  he  would  rap  at  the  window  as  I 
passed,  and  cry  out:  "  Hallo,  John,  have  you 
brought  me  any  nice  trout  to-day  ?"  In  the 
same  way,  he  very  often  got  a  special  fancy  for 
some  of  his  favourite  barberries,  which  he  liked 
eating  raw  as  well  as  in  jelly.  There  was  a  plenti- 
ful supply  of  these  along  the  road  to  the  river  quite 
close  to  the  house,  and  he  used  often  to  say  to  me 
suddenly:  "  Now,  John,  you  might  take  a  basket 
and  go  and  pick  some  barberries  for  me."  He  was 
very  fond  of  potatoes  cooked  in  their  jackets,  and 
also  liked  cabbage,  seakale,  peas,  French  beans,  and 


i8o      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

turnips.  He  hardly  took  sweets,  except  rhubarb, 
of  which  he  was  specially  fond,  being  in  that  respect 
the  exact  opposite  to  myself,  and  avoided  pastry 
like  poison,  as  he  found  it  did  not  agree  with  his 
digestion.  His  cheese  was,  as  a  rule,  Gruyere. 
He  never  took  nuts,  and  practically  the  only  form 
of  dessert  which  he  touched  was  grapes.  I  always 
lamented  the  fact  that  he  did  not  like  apples,  be- 
cause he  not  only  did  not  eat  them  himself,  but 
had  all  the  apple-trees  in  the  orchard  cut  down. 

At  dinner  he  invariably  had  claret ;  at  breakfast, 
tea;  and  during  the  evening  he  occasionally  took  a 
cup  of  cocoa,  but  was  not  fond  of  coffee.  He  ate 
his  meals  rather  quickly,  and  disliked  talking  at 
them,  preferring  apparently,  as  when  walking  or 
in  bed,  to  pursue  the  train  of  his  own  thoughts. 

While  anything  in  the  nature  of  a  fixed  time- 
table for  meals  was  absolutely  unknown  in  Avon- 
dale,  his  visitors  were  always  free  to  have  what- 
ever they  liked  whenever  they  chose,  and  the 
result  was  that  the  dining-room  saw  one  long 
succession  of  meals  like  the  Mad  Hatter's  tea- 
party  in  "  Alice  in  Wonderland."  As  was  the  case 
with  hours,  he  never  sought  to  impose  the  nature 
of  his  meals  upon  his  guests,  or  even  upon  his 
brothers  and  sisters.  The  rule  at  Avondale  was 
that  you  could  have  exactly  what  you  liked, 
exactly  when  you  liked.  These  habits  he  con- 
tinued right  through  his  political  life,  with  the 
exception  that,   if   anj'thing,   his  meals  became 


IN  POWER  i8i 

more  irregular  as  years  went  on.  In  his  later  days 
Sir  Henry  Thompson  gradually  increased  the 
strictness  of  his  diet,  for,  as  I  have  stated,  his 
throat  and  chest  were  always  weak,  and  his 
health  at  the  best  of  times  was  delicate. 

In  the  early  days  I  hardly  ever  remember  him 
smoking.  Later  in  his  political  days  he  developed 
a  taste  for  cigars,  though  I  think  he  never  took  to 
the  pipe  or  cigarette.  He  was  fond  of  using  the 
smoking-room  of  the  House  of  Commons,  either 
to  think  out  his  schemes  or  to  hold  conferences 
with  members  of  his  party,  but  he  by  no  means 
always  smoked  when  he  was  there. 

As  for  his  amusement,  outdoor  sports,  such  as 
cricket,  hunting,  and  shooting,  were  always  his 
favourites  when  he  had  time  to  indulge  in  them. 
Chess,  as  I  have  said  earlier,  he  knew,  but  did  not 
play  it  exceptionally  well.  He  was  a  keen  billiard- 
player,  but,  as  far  as  I  can  recollect,  took  little  or 
no  interest  in  cards. 

As  a  letter-writer  he  confined  himself  to  the 
briefest  and  most  business-like  epistles.  The  tele- 
graph was  his  usual  means  of  communication,  and 
certainly  the  surest  way  of  getting  a  reply  from 
him,  as  he  was  rather  apt  to  ignore  the  letters  he 
received.  I  know  that  even  I,  when  I  wished  to 
arrange  to  meet  him,  had  to  do  so  by  telegram,  as, 
if  I  sent  on  a  letter  in  advance,  he  rarely  took  much 
notice  of  it,  and  I  had  to  go  and  rout  him  out 
wherever  he  was  stopping,  when  his    invariable 


i82      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

remark  was:  "  Whyever  didn't  you  send  me  a 
telegram  ?" 

His  desire  for  haste  showed  itself  even  more 
when  he  was  travelling.  If  he  took  a  car  he 
generally  urged  the  driver  to  the  utmost  speed,  and 
if  he  missed  a  train,  or  found  that  he  would  have 
to  wait  any  appreciable  time,  he  generally  char- 
tered a  special,  on  several  occasions  travelling  on 
the  footplate  of  the  engine.  Delay  in  any  form 
was,  in  fact,  abhorrent  to  one  of  his  highly-strung 
nervous  temperament. 

That  is  as  far  I  as  can  remember  of  my  brother's 
outward  appearance,  manner,  and  habits,  during 
the  time  of  his  greatness.  The  details  which  I 
have  given  may  seem  trivial,  taken  singly,  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  they  may  be  of  service  as  giving 
some  sort  of  picture  of  the  man  himself. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  RIGHT  TO  LIVE 

Land  Law. 

Charley,  when  he  became  leader,  found  himself 
in  charge  of  a  divided  party,  as  Mr.  Shaw  and  the 
moderate  section  of  the  Home  Rulers  who  sup- 
ported him  sat  on  the  other  side  of  the  House. 
The  Government,  however,  instead  of  attempting 
to  widen  this  breach  in  the  ranks  of  their  inveterate 
opponents,  actually  drove  them  together  into  one 
solid  phalanx  by  refusing  any  concession  whatever 
to  Irish  demands. 

The  whole  energies  of  the  Irish  party  were  de- 
voted to  obtaining  some  sort  of  solution  of  the 
land  question,  which,  owing  to  the  terrors  of  the 
famine  and  the  merciless  evictions,  had  become 
desperately  acute.  Charley's  remedy,  or  at  any 
rate  palliative  of  this  state  of  things,  was  voiced 
in  a  Bill  brought  in  by  Mr.  O'Connor  Power  to 
award  compensation  in  any  case  of  disturbance. 
The  English  Government,  as  has  not  infrequently 
been  their  course  in  Irish  affairs,  wished  to  do 
neither  one  thing  nor  the  other.  They  did  not 
repudiate  the  idea  of  compensation  for  disturb- 

183 


i84      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

ance,  but  did  not  wish  to  give  their  sanction 
to  a  measure  introduced  by  the  Irish  party  them- 
selves. 

A  Bill  to  effect  this  purpose  was  accordingly 
brought  in  by  Mr.  Forster,  who  had  become  Chief 
Secretary  under  the  new  Ministry.  He  was  sup- 
ported by  the  entire  Irish  party,  but  the  Bill, 
after  passing  through  the  Commons  by  a  somewhat 
slender  majority,  was  ignominiously  thrown  out 
by  the  Lords. 


The  Agrarian  War. 

This  led  to  the  period  of  boycotting  and  agrarian 
outrage  which  forms  one  of  the  blackest  pages 
in  the  history  of  Ireland.  Whether  the  responsi- 
bility for  these  deplorable  occurrences  should  rest 
entirely  with  the  Land  League — and  therefore, 
of  course,  with  my  brother,  as  its  founder  and 
supreme  director — or  whether  the  apathy,  and 
even  opposition,  of  the  English  Parliament,  especi- 
ally the  House  of  Lords,  did  not  to  a  large  extent 
justify  this  outbreak  of  violence  on  the  part  of 
men  driven  to  desperation  through  hunger  and 
misery,  lies  with  a  posterity  more  remote  and  im- 
partial than  our  present  one  to  decide. 

My  brother,  I  know,  always  set  his  face  strongly 
against  outrage  of  any  kind.  As  a  last  extremity, 
he  might  have  consented  to  lead  an  army  in  the 
field;  but  the  idea  of  cowardly  attacks  on  indi- 


IN  POWER  185 

viduals,  and  above  all  the  maiming  of  animals, 
repelled  him  to  the  last  degree.  But  his  hand  was 
forced  in  this  instance  by  his  lieutenants  and  by 
the  Fenians,  without  whose  help  at  this  time  he 
was  powerless. 

I  consider  that  the  real  blame  should  rest  on  the 
landlords,  who  callousty  insisted  on  getting  their 
rents,  which  they  refused  to  reduce  from  those 
existing  in  times  of  prosperity,  and  mercilessly 
evicted  the  many  poor  wretches  who  were  unable 
to  pay,  and  who  were  converted  against  their 
wills  from  peaceable  tenant  farmers  into  des- 
peradoes. 

Charley  had  thrown  himself  heart  and  soul  into 
the  organization  of  the  Land  League,  which  had 
spread  in  a  very  short  time  throughout  the 
country,  and  had  come  very  near  to  controlling 
the  law  and  its  administration.  To  the  Land 
League  the  starving  people  of  Ireland  naturally 
looked  for  assistance  when  the  Bill,  upon  whose 
passing  their  very  lives  depended,  was  thrown 
out  by  a  House  whose  members  included  many 
of  their  own  absentee  landlords.  The  people 
looked  to  the  Land  League,  and  the  Land  League 
looked  to  Charley,  for  a  policy  that  would  serve 
the  purpose.  As  ever,  he  was  ready  with  a  new 
form  of  warfare.  This,  though  not  involving 
bloodshed  necessarily,  undoubtedly  led  to  it  in 
some  instances.  It  was,  however,  really  intended 
as  a  compromise  between  the  futility  of  constitu- 


i86      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

tional  agitation  and  the  desperate,  and  to  him, 
abhorrent,  agrarian  outrages,  the  latter,  how- 
ever, proving  impossible  to  suppress. 


Boycotting. 

Boycotting,  as  this  new  system  soon  came  to 
be  known,  owing  to  its  first  victim  being  Captain 
Boycott,  the  agent  of  Lord  Erne,  was  outlined  by 
my  brother  in  the  course  of  a  famous  speech 
delivered  at  Ennis  on  September  19,  1881.  He 
had  asked  his  audience  what  they  proposed  to 
do  to  a  tenant  who  bid  for  a  farm  from  which  his 
neighbour  had  been  evicted.  A  chorus  of  voices 
cried,  "  Shoot  him  !"  but  Charley  continued  in 
his  even,  impassive  voice  to  describe  the  method 
of  using  this  terrible  weapon  which  he  had  forged 
on  behalf  of  his  poor  and  starving  fellow-country- 
men. I  give  his  words  in  full,  for  as  a  definition 
of  "boycotting  "  they  will  endure  to  all  eternity. 
They  are  as  follows : 

When  a  man  takes  a  farm  from  which 
another  has  been  evicted,  you  must  show  him 
on  the  roadside  when  you  meet  him,  you 
must  show  him  in  the  streets  and  the  town, 
you  must  show  him  at  the  shop  counter,  you 
must  show  him  in  the  fair  and  in  the  market- 
place, and  even  in  the  house  of  worship,  by 
leaving  him  severely  alone,  by  putting  him 
into  a  moral  Coventry,  by  isolating  him  from 


IN  POWER  187 

his  kind  as  if  he  was  a  leper  of  old — you 
must  show  him  your  detestation  of  the  crime 
he  has  committed;  and  you  may  depend 
upon  it  that  there  will  be  no  man  so  full  of 
avarice,  so  lost  to  shame,  as  to  dare  the  public 
opinion  of  all  right-thinking  men,  and  to 
transgress  your  unwritten  code  of  laws. 

This  terrible  anathema  had  immediate  effect, 
and  its  success  resulted  in  the  still  more  rapid 
growth  of  the  Land  League,  which  Davitt  set 
himself  to  work  to  spread  in  America,  while  my 
brother  was  extending  it  throughout  Ireland. 

The  boycott  was  intended  by  my  brother,  as  I 
have  said,  as  a  means  of  passive  resistance;  but 
it  did  not  long  stop  at  that.  The  people  were 
not  satisfied  with  isolating  their  fellow-country- 
men. **  It  is  not  enough  to  send  them  to  Cov- 
entry; we  must  send  them  to  hell !"  was  a  saying 
that  passed  like  wildfire  through  the  ranks  of  the 
evicted  tenants.  Murders  became  of  everyday 
occurrence,  cattle  were  shockingly  maimed,  the 
farmer  who  replaced  an  evicted  tenant  was  lucky 
if  he  escaped  with  his  life.  A  shot  through  a 
window  or  door  or  from  behind  the  hedge  was  the 
manifestation  of  the  power  of  Captain  Moonlight, 
as  the  organization  of  those  who  believed  in 
violence  was  nicknamed. 


i88      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 


A  Desperate  Remedy. 

The  Government  soon  became  alarmed,  even  to 
the  extent  of  panic,  at  the  reign  of  terror  which 
then  prevailed  in  Ireland,  especially  the  western 
counties.  A  long  discussion  took  place  between 
the  English  Cabinet  and  the  Executive  at  Dublin 
Castle  as  to  the  best  means  of  suppressing  the  dis- 
turbance. The  obvious  course  was  to  suspend 
the  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  an  expedient  that  had 
been  adopted  in  previous  crises.  Before  taking 
this  course,  however,  Mr.  Forster  conceived  the 
not  very  brilliant  idea  of  suppressing  the  Land 
League  by  prosecuting  its  principal  officers  for 
conspiracy.  Accordingly,  a  bunch  of  warrants 
were  issued  against  my  brother,  Messrs.  Biggar, 
Dillon,  Sullivan,  0' Sullivan,  and  Sexton  (his 
fellow-members  of  Parliament),  the  treasurer 
(Patrick  Egan),  and  the  secretary  (Thomas  Bren- 
nan),  besides  a  number  of  other  persons  con- 
nected with  the  League.  Charle}^  was  not  much 
upset  at  this  indiscreet  move  on  the  part  of  the 
Government,  which  he  knew  must  in  the  end 
tell  against  them.  "  I  regret,"  he  declared  at  a 
meeting  held  shortly  afterwards,  **  that  Mr. 
Forster  has  chosen  to  waste  his  time,  the  money 
of  the  Government,  and  our  own  money,  in  these 
prosecutions." 

The  trial  concluded  on  January  25,  1881,  after 


IN  POWER  189 

a  hearing  lasting  for  twenty  days.  The  jury  dis- 
agreed, but  an  indiscreet  member  of  that  body  let 
the  public  behind  the  scenes  by  announcing  in 
court,  "  We  are  ten  to  two,  my  lord,"  showing 
the  overwhelming  majority  of  Parnellites  even  in 
a  carefully-selected  jury.  The  Judge,  seeing  how 
things  stood,  immediately  ordered  the  jury  to  be 
discharged. 

The  Government  then  decided  to  suspend  the 
Habeas  Corpus  Act,  and  on  January  24  Mr. 
Forster's  famous  Coercion  Bill  was  introduced, 
being  given  precedence  of  all  other  business.  The 
Government  adopted  a  policy  of  suppression, 
and  the  Irish  party  one  of  obstruction. 

On  February  2  the  Speaker,  after  the  sitting 
had  lasted  for  forty-one  hours  (it  was  then  9  a.m.), 
declared  that  in  the  interests  of  the  House  he 
must  call  upon  the  members  to  decide  at  once 
upon  the  first  reading.  This  was  done,  the  Bill 
being  read  the  first  time  by  a  majority  of  164 
to  19.  The  House  then  gave  itself  a  brief  rest 
until  noon. 

On  its  reassembling,  Charley,  who  had  not 
been  in  the  House  when  the  Speaker  made  his 
startling  announcement,  rose  and  challenged  the 
Speaker's  action  on  a  question  of  privilege.  After 
a  considerable  bandying  of  words  between  Charley 
and  the  Speaker,  the  latter  agreed  that  it  was 
necessary  for  him  to  consult  the  precedents. 

So  acute  did  the  obstruction  on  the  part  of  the 


190      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

Irish  members  then  become,  that  the  rules  of  pro- 
cedure were  rendered  yet  more  strict  on  the 
motion  of  Mr.  Gladstone.  Then  there  was  an 
outburst  of  disorder.  Mr.  Dillon  was  suspended, 
and  finally  removed  by  the  Sergeant- at- Arms;  and 
Charley,  for  moving  that  Mr.  Gladstone  "be  no 
longer  heard,"  was  named  by  the  Speaker,  and 
suspended  on  the  motion  of  Mr.  Gladstone. 
Member  after  member  then  rose  from  the  Irish 
benches  and  followed  their  leader  into  a  state  of 
suspension,  while  messages  were  sent  to  those 
who  were  not  in  the  House  to  come  and  offer 
themselves  as  a  similar  sacrifice. 


Tardy  Justice. 

The  indignation  aroused  by  the  prosecution  of 
the  Land  League,  the  suspension  of  the  Habeas 
Corpus  Act,  and  the  passing  of  the  Coercion  Bill — 
all  unwise  acts  on  the  part  of  the  Government — 
resulted  in  the  Land  Bill  which  was  brought  in 
by  Mr.  Gladstone  not  receiving  the  support  from 
the  Irish  party  which  it  would  otherwise  have 
done.  The  Bill  all  the  same  was  a  good  Bill, 
and  granted  freely  the  majority  of  the  demands 
for  the  rights  of  tenants,  which  had  been  con- 
sistently ignored  for  so  long. 

But  the  question  was,  How  were  the  Irish  going 
to  act  ? — in  other  words,  How  was  my  brother 
going  to  act  ?     He  decided  to  oppose  the  Bill  on 


IN  POWER  191 

the  ground  that  the  Irish  party  were  not  respon- 
sible for  it,  and  had  not  had  time  to  consider  it. 
Declaring  bluntly  that  he  would  resign  if  the 
majority  of  his  party  decided  to  support  the 
Bill,  he  succeeded  in  carrying  all  before  him.  At 
the  subsequent  divisions  Charley  and  his  followers 
walked  out  of  the  House  without  voting. 

For  insisting  that  a  day  should  be  devoted  to 
the  discussion  of  the  Irish  administration,  and  dis- 
regarding the  Speaker's  warnings,  Charley  was 
named  and  suspended. 

An  important  Land  League  Convention  was 
held  in  Dublin  on  September  14,  where  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's Land  Act,  which  had  by  then  come  into 
force,  was  discussed.  Charley  then  outlined  his 
scheme  as  to  the  use  to  which  the  Act  should  be 
put,  and  said  he  was  not  in  favour  of  too  many 
cases  being  brought  into  Court.  At  another  con- 
vention held  at  Maryborough  a  few  days  later, 
he  specially  introduced  a  resolution  that  applica- 
tions for  the  fixing  of  rent  should  not  be  made 
without  the  previous  consent  of  the  branch  of 
the  Land  League  to  which  the  tenant  belonged. 

In  other  words,  though  the  Government  had 
now  granted  a  great  measure  of  the  demands 
which  Charley  had  made  on  behalf  of  the  tenants, 
he  had  no  intention  of  agreeing  to  the  official 
dissolution  of  the  Land  League,  which  was  the 
means  by  which  these  demands  had  been  wrung 
from    an    unwilling    Government,    until   he   was 


192       CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

certain  that  they  would  be  carried  into  force. 
Moreover,  he  wished  to  have  the  repressive 
measures  adopted  by  **  Buckshot  "  Forster — as 
the  Chief  Secretary  had  come  to  be  called,  on 
account  of  his  methods  of  intimidation — repealed 
while  he  still  had  the  power  to  force  the  hand  of 
the  English  Government. 


CHAPTER  III 

IN  PRISON 

Charley's  Arrest. 

Mr.  Forster  had  not  been  long  in  realizing  that 
the  State  trial  of  the  leaders  of  the  Land  League 
was  a  mistake  from  the  beginning.  He  felt  that 
no  jury  in  Ireland  would  ever  convict  them  of  con- 
spiracy or  any  other  offence.  He  therefore  de- 
termined to  avail  himself  of  the  suspension  of  the 
Habeas  Corpus  Act,  and  dispense  with  the  need 
of  judge,  jury,  or  trial,  by  arresting  Charley  as  a 
suspect  under  the  Coercion  Act.  He  hoped,  by 
removing  one  who  was  the  body  and  soul  of  the 
movement,  to  be  able  to  crush  the  Land  League 
in  detail. 

But,  like  most  Chief  Secretaries,  he  acted  too 
late.  Had  he  arrested  Charley  just  when  he  was 
starting  to  organize  the  Land  League,  he  might 
indeed  have  nipped  the  movement  in  the  bud;  but 
to  tear  away  its  beloved  leader  just  when  the 
organization  had  attained  its  full  power  was  an 
act  of  criminal  folly.  Forster,  however,  had  con- 
verted Mr.  Gladstone  to  his  own  idea  of  arresting 
Charley,  as  being  the  mainspring  of  all  the  trouble 

193  13 


194      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

in  Ireland,  and  Mr.  Gladstone  gave  a  plainly- 
worded  warning  in  a  speech  delivered  at  Leeds  on 
October  7,  that  Charley  had  gone  as  far  as  he 
would  be  allowed  to  do.  Two  days  later  Charley 
replied  by  a  vigorous  speech  delivered  at  Wexford, 
in  which  he  rather  ridiculed  than  denounced  Mr. 
Gladstone's  attitude  towards  the  Irish  as  a  nation, 
and  himself  as  their  leader. 

After  this  both  he  and  his  friends  regarded  his 
arrest  as  certain.  They  were  justified  in  this  view, 
for  on  October  12,  at  the  conclusion  of  a  meeting 
of  the  Cabinet,  Forster  wired  to  the  Commander- 
in-Chief  of  the  Forces  in  Ireland  a  prearranged 
word  which  authorized  the  arrest  of  my  brother. 

Charley  was  stopping  at  that  time  at  Morrison's 
Hotel,  and  had  arranged  to  go  down  to  Naas  early 
the  next  morning  to  address  a  meeting.  When 
the  boots  came  up  to  call  him,  he  said  there  were 
two  men  downstairs  whom  he  believed  to  be  police 
officers  waiting  to  arrest  him.  The  man  offered 
to  try  to  get  him  safely  away  over  the  roofs,  but 
Charley  refused,  knowing  that  his  arrest  was  cer- 
tain, and  not  wishing  to  suffer  the  ignominy  of 
being  caught  while  trying  to  escape.  When  he 
was  nearly  dressed.  Superintendent  Mallon  knocked 
at  the  door,  and  handed  him  a  warrant  for  his 
arrest.  Charley  was  driven  away  quickly  in  a  cab, 
which  was  afterwards  joined  by  an  escort  of 
mounted  police,  and  arrived  at  Kilmainham  Prison 
without  anybody  being  any  the  wiser. 


IN  POWER  195 

He  was  treated  at  Kilmainham  as  a  political 
prisoner,  being  given  a  well-furnished  room  and 
allowed  to  smoke  and  get  his  meals  in  from  outside. 
He  was  able  also  to  write  and  receive  letters, 
subject  to  their  being  inspected  by  the  police 
authorities,  and  his  fellow-suspects  in  the  prison 
were  allowed  to  dine  with  him.  He  was  also 
allowed  to  receive  visitors,  and  a  great  many  of 
his  friends  availed  themselves  of  this  opportunity. 
Another  concession  was  his  being  allowed  a  few 
days'  absence  on  parole,  in  order  to  go  over  to 
Paris  to  his  sister  Theodosia  (Mrs.  Thompson), 
whose  son  was  at  the  point  of  death. 

The  "  No  Rent  "  Manifesto. 

Owing  to  the  freedom  which  he  was  allowed, 
Charley  was  as  free  to  rule  from  Kilmainham  as 
Napoleon  was  from  Elba.  In  his  sitting-room  at 
the  prison  he  openly  held  conferences  with  his 
lieutenants,  and  carried  on  the  business  of  the 
League  which  it  had  been  designed  io  crush  by 
his  arrest.  Of  course,  the  first  idea,  once  the 
news  was  known,  was  retaliation.  That  was 
not  so  much  due  to  any  vindictiveness  on  the 
part  of  Charley  himself,  as  to  the  unanimous 
resolve  of  the  officials  of  the  League,  who  were 
backed  up  by  a  tremendous  wave  of  feeling 
throughout  Ireland,  where  the  agrarian  outrages, 
instead    of    being    checked,    as    Mr.    Gladstone 


196      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

expected,  now  burst  forth  to  a  perfectly  appalling 
extent. 

I  believe  that  the  idea  of  the  "  No  Rent  "  mani- 
festo, which  was  the  League's  crushing  reply  to 
Forster's  arrest  of  Charley,  originated  with  Patrick 
Ford  of  the  Irish  World,  who  had  latterly  con- 
siderably modified  his  views  and  become  a  firm 
adherent  of  Charley's.  Egan,  who  had  taken  the 
funds  of  the  League  into  safety  in  Paris  directly 
the  Coercion  Bill  was  introduced,  warmly  co- 
operated with  Ford,  and  finally  a  manifesto  was 
drawn  up  by  William  O'Brien,  and  taken  to 
Charley  at  Kilmainham.  There,  in  the  State 
prison,  surrounded  by  armed  guards,  the  chiefs 
of  the  proscribed  League  conferred  long  and 
earnestly  as  to  how  best  to  defeat  the  objects  of 
the  Government.  Charley  finally  signed  the  docu- 
ment, owing  to  the  pressure  brought  to  bear  on 
him  from  America,  but  he  had  little  real  belief  in 
its  efhcsLcy.  He  was  thoroughly  justified  in  taking 
this  view,  for  the  manifesto  was  condemned  by 
the  priests,  and,  as  was  the  case  with  regard  to 
himself  after  the  "  Split,"  what  they  banned  as 
a  body  was  foredoomed  to  failure.  The  peasantry, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  never  really  took  the  mani- 
festo seriously,  alluring  as  the  title  was  in  their 
impoverished  condition. 


IN  POWER  T97 


"  The  Kilmainham  Treaty." 

If  Mr,  Gladstone,  acting  on  Mr.  Forster's  repre- 
sentations, expected  that  Charley's  arrest  would 
result  in  an  immediate  falling  off  in  the  number  of 
agrarian  outrages,  he  was  doomed  to  grievous 
disappointment;  for,  instead  of  decreasing,  they 
increased  to  an  unparalleled  extent.  This  was 
not  due,  as  has  been  alleged  in  some  quarters,  to 
a  desire  on  the  part  of  Charley  to  avenge  himself 
at  all  costs,  but,  on  the  contrary,  to  the  check 
which  he  had  exercised  over  excesses  of  this  nature 
being  removed  by  his  imprisonment.  The  only 
way  in  which  he  could  keep  a  tight  hand  on  the 
more  desperate  section  of  his  party  was  by  con- 
tinually paying  personal  visits  to  the  districts 
where  evictions  were  most  prevalent,  and,  while 
advising  them  to  resist  English  tyranny  by  all 
constitutional  methods,  discountenancing  murder, 
maiming,  and  similar  crimes.  This,  however,  he 
could  no  longer  do  when  confined  at  Kilmainham, 
and  many  of  his  colleagues  were  by  no  means 
averse  to  a  campaign  of  outrage  so  long  as  it 
terrorized  the  landlords,  and  through  them 
England. 

What  is  known  as  the  "  Kilmainham  Treaty  " 
was  an  informal  contract  entered  into  between 
Charley,  Mr.  Gladstone,  and  Mr.  Chamberlain. 
No  written  agreement  was  ever  made,  but  to  all 


198      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

intents  and  purposes  it  was  a  treaty  between  the 
English  Government  and  the  Irish  party,  the  con- 
ditions of  which  were  faithfully  carried  out  by 
both  sides. 

The  purport  of  the  whole  understanding,  as  it 
may  perhaps  be  accurately  described,  was  that 
Charley  should  be  released,  the  Coercion  Act  re- 
pealed, and  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  brought  into 
force  again,  while  Charley  on  his  part  should  use 
his  entire  influence  to  pacify  Ireland. 

The  chief  difficulty  was  for  Mr.  Gladstone  to 
persuade  Lord  Cowper,  the  Viceroy,  to  sign  the 
order  for  release.  He  finally  consented,  and 
Charley  walked  out  again  a  free  man  in  May,  1882. 

Although  Charley  was  well  treated  at  Kilmain- 
ham,  his  health  certainly  suffered  by  his  imprison- 
ment, and,  from  what  he  told  me  when  I  met  him 
in  1884,  his  already  delicate  constitution  never 
recovered  from  the  effects  of  his  imprisonment, 
which  led  to  a  severe  illness  in  1883,  and  un- 
doubtedly sowed  the  seeds  of  his  final  breakdown 
in  health  (see  Appendix  A) . 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  PHCENIX  PARK  MURDERS 

Return  to  Parliament. 

Charley's  release,  being  a  direct  admission  of  the 
failure  of  the  policy  of  coercion  adopted  by  the 
Irish  executive,  resulted  in  the  immediate  resigna- 
tion of  Lord  Cowper  and  Mr.  Forster  from  the  Lord 
Lieutenancy  and  Chief  Secretaryship  respectively. 
Forster  was  in  the  middle  of  a  speech  defending 
his  action  in  Ireland  when  Charley  entered  the 
House,  being  welcomed  with  a  wild  burst  of  cheer- 
ing from  the  Irish  benches.  In  a  speech  which 
attracted  much  attention,  Charley  denied  that  any 
definite  compact  had  been  entered  into  between 
himself  and  the  Government,  but  said  that  a  settle- 
ment of  the  arrears  question  would  have  much  to 
do  towards  ending  the  reign  of  outrage  in  Ireland, 
which  he  so  much  deplored.  It  was  proposed  to 
enable  those  tenants  who  were  unable  to  pay  their 
rents,  owing  to  the  famine,  to  avoid  eviction  by 
the  Government  advancing  a  sum  out  of  the  funds 
derived  from  the  disestablishment  of  the  Church 
of  Ireland.  This  proposal,  after  much  discussion, 
afterwards  bore  fruit,  as  will  be  seen. 

199 


200      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

But  the  cup  of  victory  was  to  be  dashed  from 
Charley's  Hps,  owing  to  a  circumstance  over  which 
he  had  no  control.  Just  as  later,  when  he  had 
emerged  triumphant  from  the  Pigott  trial  he  was 
to  meet  with  the  crushing  blow  of  the  O'Shea  case, 
so  now  the  Phoenix  Park  murders  to  a  great  extent 
nullified  the  Kilmainham  Treaty. 

Lord  Spencer  and  Lord  Frederick  Cavendish 
had  taken  the  places  of  Lord  Cowper  and  Mr. 
Forster.  The  state  entry  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant 
into  Dublin  took  place  on  May  6.  When  the 
pageant  had  concluded,  Lord  Frederick  Cavendish 
told  Lord  Spencer  that  he  would  prefer  to  walk 
to  the  Chief  Secretary's  Lodge  instead  of  accept- 
ing the  Lord  Lieutenant's  offer  of  a  seat  in  his 
carriage.  As  he  entered  the  park  he  was  joined 
by  Mr.  Burke,  the  Under-Secretary,  and  they 
walked  together  towards  the  Chief  Secretary's 
Lodge.  Just  opposite  the  Viceregal  Lodge  a 
small  group  of  men  who  were  standing  by  suddenly 
fell  on  them  and  stabbed  them  both  to  death. 
Lord  Spencer,  from  within  the  Viceregal  Lodge, 
heard  repeated  shrieks  of  agony,  and  ran  to  the 
window.  A  man  came  rushing  along  at  full  speed, 
crying:  "  Mr.  Burke  and  Lord  Frederick  Cavendish 
are  killed  !"  The  Viceroy  attempted  to  rush  out, 
but  was  stopped  by  the  members  of  his  household, 
who  were  anxious  for  his  safety. 

Numerous  arrests  followed,  and  six  men  were 
tried  and  hanged  for  the  crime,  chiefly  on  the  evi- 


IN  POWER  201 

dence  of  a  man  named  Carey,  who  turned  informer, 
and  was  afterwards  murdered  on  the  high  seas. 

There  is  Uttle  doubt  that  this  terrible  murder 
was  the  work  of  a  small  body  of  desperate  men 
belonging  to  a  society  called  the  "  Invincibles," 
which  had  come  into  being  with  the  avowed  pur- 
pose of  removing  political  opponents  by  assassina- 
tion. They  had  no  connection  whatever  with  an^^ 
of  the  recognized  Irish  political  bodies.  Still,  of 
course,  that  fact  was  not  appreciated  in  England. 

The  indignation  with  which  this  outrage  was 
received  was  intense,  both  in  England  and  Ireland. 
To  speak  plainly,  it  was  generally  believed  in 
England  that  Charley  was  the  direct  instigator  of 
the  crime.  The  people  clamoured  savagely  for 
his  blood,  and  great  crowds  assembled  in  front  of 
the  Westminster  Palace  Hotel,  where  he  was 
staying.  In  spite  of  this,  he  insisted  upon  moving 
freely  about  in  the  streets,  although  his  life  was 
really  in  more  danger  than  had  been  those  of 
Lord  Frederick  Cavendish  and  Mr.  Burke.  Cer- 
tainly, hardly  anyone  in  England  at  that  time 
would  have  thought  it  other  than  meritorious  to 
have  killed  him,  and  no  jury  would  have  dreamt 
of  convicting  his  murderer.  Owing  to  his  dis- 
regard of  danger,  the  days  succeeding  the  an- 
nouncement of  the  Phoenix  Park  crime  were 
amongst  the  most  anxious  which  Scotland  Yard 
ever  experienced,  as  in  the  state  of  public  feeling 
it  was  impossible  to  have  any  idea  from  what 


202      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

quarter  the  blow  might  be  struck.  It  was  there- 
fore useless  to  watch  any  particular  body  or  group 
of  persons,  political  or  otherwise,  and  the  whole 
energies  of  the  Yard  had  to  be  devoted  to  shadow- 
ing Charley  himself,  over  whose  safety  a  veritable 
army  of  the  most  experienced  detectives  in  the 
kingdom  watched  by  day  and  night. 

In  Ireland  the  news  was  received  with  horror, 
disappointment,  and  disgust.  It  was  felt  that  it 
was  a  cowardly  murder,  and  one  which  deeply 
dishonoured  the  Irish  sense  of  hospitality,  as  this 
was  Lord  Frederick  Cavendish's  first  visit  to 
Ireland,  where  he  had  never  taken  any  part  in 
political  affairs.  Moreover,  it  was  a  useless  and 
irresponsible  crime,  which  recoiled,  not  so  much 
upon  the  actual  perpetrators,  as  upon  the  whole 
Irish  party.  Had  it  only  been  Mr.  Burke  the 
thing  would  have  been  bad  enough,  but  it  was 
felt  that  there  was  no  possible  excuse  for  the  un- 
provoked murder  of  an  innocent  stranger,  which 
could  only  bring  into  disrepute  an  entire  nation 
which  had  taken  no  act  or  part  in  it. 

Charley's  Feelings. 

The  blow  was  a  terrible  one  for  Charley.  He 
was  completely  unnerved.  His  first  idea  was  to 
retire  at  once  from  public  life,  though  from  this 
course  he  was  dissuaded,  not  only  by  his  friends, 
but  even  by  his  great  opponent,  Mr.  Gladstone, 


IN  POWER  203 

who  assured  him  of  his  complete  beUef  in  his 
innocence  of  the  slightest  complicity  in  the  matter. 
But  it  is  certain  that  for  once  Charley  com- 
pletely lost  his  usual  cool  head,  and  allowed  his 
nervous  temperament,  which  as  a  rule  he  kept 
strictly  under  control,  to  dominate  him  completely 
for  the  time  being.  I  know  myself  that  for  years 
after  this  horrible  event  preyed  on  his  generous 
and  sensitive  nature,  and  I  realized  so  well  how 
even  a  slight  reference  by  him,  to  a  matter  which 
was  completely  past,  showed  that  he  must  have 
thought  very  long  and  deeply  about  it. 

On  the  very  day  when  the  news  was  received  in 
England,  Charley  issued  a  manifesto,  which  was 
also  signed  bj^  Dillon  and  Davitt,  addressed  to 
the  Irish  people,  in  which,  after  expressing  the 
horror  with  which  they  received  the  news  of  the 
crime,  the  Irish  leaders  said:  **  We  feel  that  no 
act  has  ever  been  perpetrated  in  our  countrj^, 
during  the  exciting  struggle  for  social  and  political 
rights  of  the  past  fifty  years,  that  has  so  stained 
the  name  of  hospitable  Ireland  as  this  cowardly 
and  unprovoked  assassination  of  a  friendly 
stranger."  That  exactly  expresses  Charley's 
views  on  the  matter,  as  I  know  from  his 
subsequent  conversations  with  me.  I  think  for 
once  that  his  faith  in  the  righteousness  of  the  cause 
for  which  he  had  fought  so  consistently  was 
shaken  for  the  first  time  by  the  dread  that  any- 
thing in  his  policy,  directed  though  it  had  always 


204      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

been  for  the  bettering  of  the  conditions  of  his 
poorer  fellow-countrymen,  should  have  given  even 
the  faintest  encouragement,  to  minds  disordered 
as  were  those  of  the  "  Invincibles/'  to  the  com- 
mission of  such  a  dastardly  crime.  His  intense 
pride,  his  sensitiveness,  and  his  genuine  love  of 
Ireland,  caused  him  to  suffer  horribly,  and  the 
wound  was  never  healed. 

He  entered  the  House  of  Commons  on  May  8, 
almost  a  broken  man.  Though  a  victor,  the 
spoils  of  war  had  been  more  than  torn  from  him, 
and  his  personal  honour  was  assailed  in  a  way  which 
only  allowed  him  to  refute  the  accusations  by  his 
own  personal  word,  in  which  he  knew  the  English 
would  put  no  belief.  His  speech  in  the  House  was 
brief,  and  marked  with  obvious  emotion.  In  the 
course  of  it  he  expressed  the  fear  that  owing  to 
this  deplorable  event  all  his  efforts  towards  peace 
would  be  thrown  away,  and  the  Government  would 
find  no  other  course  open  to  them  than  to  resort 
to  coercion  once  more.  This  was  indeed  the  case, 
for  Sir  William  Harcourt's  Crimes  Bill  was  imme- 
diately rushed  through,  in  spite  of  wild  scenes  of 
obstruction  on  the  part  of  the  Irish  party,  in  the 
course  of  which  eighteen  members  were  suspended. 
Charley  and  his  party  finally  ceased  to  take  an^- 
further  part  in  the  discussion  of  the  Bill,  protesting 
against  the  suspension  of  their  fellow-members  at 
a  time  when  a  measure  affecting  vitally  the  rights 
and  liberties  of  Ireland  was  before  the  House. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  ARREARS  ACT 

A  Concession. 

In  spite  of  the  Coercion  Act,  Charley  scored  one 
signal  victory,  for  an  Arrears  Bill  was  passed,  to 
a  great  extent,  on  the  lines  for  which  he  had  been 
agitating.  The  Bill,  which  applied  to  tenancies 
under  £30,  provided  that,  subject  to  the  tenant 
satisfying  the  Court  that  he  was  unable  to  pay 
the  whole  of  the  arrears,  and  paying  the  rent  due 
in  1881,  he  should  only  be  liable  for  the  rent  during 
one  of  the  two  years  1879  ^^^  1880,  the  State 
paying  the  remaining  portion.  Charley,  having 
obtained  to  a  certain  degree  the  land  reforms 
which  were  the  subject  of  his  campaign,  was  now 
able  to  slacken  the  land  agitation,  which  he  had 
almost  regarded  as  a  measure  of  necessity,  and  had 
secretly  disliked,  owing  to  its  leading  to  outrage. 
After  the  Phoenix  Park  murders  he  was  determined, 
both  on  their  account  and  on  account  of  the  in- 
formal promise  he  had  made  in  connection,  with 
what  was  known  as  the  Kilmainham  Treaty,  to 
end  the  reign  of  terror  in  Ireland.  The  Land 
League  had  to  a  great  degree  effected  this  purpose, 
and,  being  proscribed  by  the  Government,  its  or- 

205 


2o6      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

ganization  was  scattered;  and  the  Ladies'  Land 
League,  which  he  had  regarded  at  the  outset  as 
being  of  some  possible  use,  but  had  soon  come  to 
look  upon  as  an  uncontrollable  and  even  mis- 
chievous agency,  which  tended  to  upset  his  own 
policy,  he  had  deliberately  starved  to  death  by 
refusing  to  advance  any  more  funds. 

It  was  clear  that  at  this  time  Charley  wanted 
to  devote  himself  to  what,  after  all,  was  his  great 
ambition — the  obtaining  of  Home  Rule  for  Ireland 
by  constitutional  methods.  An  exceptional  out- 
burst of  murders — some  of  them  for  the  slightest 
causes — were  making  the  year  1882  memorable, 
even  in  the  bloodstained  annals  of  agrarian  out- 
rage. Charley  was  sick  to  death  of  these  ignoble 
crimes,  which  lowered  the  status  of  his  country 
without  in  any  way  advancing  the  prospects  of 
its  independence. 

The  trial  of  the  "  Invincibles  "  who  were  sup- 
posed to  have  been  connected  with  the  Phoenix 
Park  murders,  which  took  place  in  February,  1883, 
again  concentrated  English  public  opinion  on  the 
horrors  of  the  crime  itself  and  on  the  general 
lawlessness  existing  in  Ireland.  This  was  followed, 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  by  a  violent  attack  made 
upon  Charley  by  Mr.  Forster,  who  used  these 
words,  which  summarize  the  general  feeling  against 
my  brother  at  the  time :  "  It  has  been  often  enough 
stated  and  shown  by  statistics  that  murder  followed 
the  meetings  and  action  of  the  Land  League  .... 


IN  POWER  207 

It  is  not  that  he  himself  directly  planned  or  per- 
petrated outrages  or  murders,  but  that  he  either 
connived  at  them,  or,  when  warned,  did  not  use 
his  influence  to  prevent  them."  Charley  listened 
unmoved  to  this  damning  accusation,  and,  in- 
stead of  replying  to  it,  immediately  moved  the 
adjournment  of  the  debate  until  the  next  day 
(February  23,  1882). 


A  Defiance. 

On  the  eventful  day  the  House  was  crowded,  in 
expectation  of  a  detailed  and  elaborate  defence,  on 
the  part  of  Charley,  of  his  action  with  regard  to 
the  Land  League.  If  the  House  expected  any- 
thing in  the  nature  of  an  apology,  or  even  an  expla- 
nation, they  were  doomed  to  disappointment,  for 
from  beginning  to  end  his  speech  was  a  proud  and 
contemptuous  defiance. 

After  saying  that  it  was  impossible  for  anyone 
to  stem  the  torrent  of  prejudice  that  had  arisen, 
he  entered  into  a  series  of  bitter  gibes  at  the  Irish 
Executive.  He  asked  why  Mr.  Forster  was  not 
sent  back  to  help  Lord  Spencer  in  the  congenial 
work  of  the  gallows  in  Ireland.  "  We  invite  you," 
he  said  with  scathing  sarcasm,  "  to  man  your 
ranks,  and  to  send  your  ablest  and  best  men  to 
push  forward  the  task  of  misgoverning  and  op- 
pressing Ireland."  Of  the  future  he  was  sanguine, 
and  he  ended  his  speech  with  a  calm  prophecy  of 


2o8       CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

success.  He  said:  **  Although  the  horizon  may  be 
clouded,  I  believe  our  people  will  survive  the 
present  oppression,  as  they  have  survived  many 
and  worse  misfortunes;  and  although  our  progress 
may  be  slow,  it  will  be  sure." 

But  the  whole  speech  was  summarized  in  one 
famous  sentence:  "  By  the  judgment  of  the  Irish 
people  only  do  I,  and  will  I,  stand  or  fall." 

This  was  not  at  all  the  kind  of  speech  which  the 
House  had  expected,  and  they  received  it  with 
feelings  of  mixed  amazement  and  disgust. 

About  this  time  the  Fenians  began  to  become 
anxious  concerning  Charley's  attitude  and  the 
moderate  policy  which  he  was  now  adopting. 
They  invited  him  to  attend  a  convention  which 
was  being  held  at  Philadelphia  on  April  25.  He 
declined  the  invitation  to  attend  personally,  but 
sent  a  cablegram  in  which  he  suggested  that  their 
platform  should  be  so  framed  as  to  enable  the 
Irish  national  party  to  continue  to  accept  help 
from  America,  while  at  the  same  time  avoiding 
offering  a  pretext  to  the  British  Government  for 
entirely  suppressing  the  national  movement  in 
Ireland.  After  this  convention  the  existing 
American  Land  League  was  replaced  by  the 
National  League  of  America,  which  was  intended 
to  co-operate  with  the  newly-formed  National 
League  of  Ireland.  The  Fenians  thus  regained 
somewhat  of  their  hold  on  Irish  policy,  as  Charley 
found  it  impossible  to  break  openly  with  them. 


IN  POWER  209 


The  Tribute. 

My  brother,  as  I  explain  elsewhere  (Appendix  C), 
had  for  many  complicated  reasons  been  getting 
gradually  into  low  water  so  far  as  regarded 
finance.  It  came  as  a  shock  to  the  Irish  people 
to  hear  that  a  mortgage  on  Avondale  had  been 
foreclosed,  and  that  he  had  filed  a  petition  for 
sale.  This  resulted  in  a  desire,  which  was  spon- 
taneous on  the  part  of  all  classes  throughout 
Ireland,  to  aid  their  beloved  leader,  who  had 
risked  so  much  on  their  behalf.  Accordingly,  a 
gigantic  collection  was  set  on  foot,  and  by  De- 
cember II,  1882,  when  it  closed,  it  had  reached 
the  sum  of  £37,011  17s.  His  reception  of  this 
amount,  large  as  it  was,  was  characteristic.  He 
was  handed  the  cheque  on  December  11,  just  before 
a  grand  banquet  was  given  in  his  honour.  He  put 
it  in  his  pocket  as  if  it  were  a  matter  of  course, 
and  neither  then  nor  in  the  course  of  his  subse- 
quent speech  made  the  slightest  reference  to  it. 

The  Dynamite  Outrages. 

During  1883  and  1884  the  extremists,  not  satis- 
fied with  agrarian  outrages,  started  to  carry  the  war 
right  into  the  enemy's  country,  by  a  series  of 
attempts  to  blow  up  public  buildings  in  London. 
The  explosive  used  was  dynamite,  a  factory  for 

14 


210      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

the  making  of  which  was  discovered  by  the  poUce 
in  Birmingham.  It  was  found  that  the  Govern- 
ment offices,  the  principal  railway-stations,  Scot- 
land Yard,  and  even  the  Houses  of  Parliament 
themselves,  were  marked  out  for  destruction,  and 
in  several  cases  attempts,  more  or  less  abortive, 
were  made  to  carry  these  plans  into  effect. 

Some  suggestions  of  complicity  were  made 
against  my  brother  even  in  this  connection,  but  I 
know  that  his  attitude  towards  the  dynamitards 
was  not  in  the  slightest  degree  s^^mpathetic.  He 
regarded  them  as  fools  and  madmen,  who  were 
only  upsetting  his  own  plans.  He  felt  a  very  keen 
resentment  against  the  Irish  World,  whose  violent 
articles,  written  by  the  American  Fenians,  had 
undoubtedly  inspired  the  outrages. 


CHAPTER  VI 
A    SUCCESSFUL    CAMPAIGN 

Inactive,  but  not  Idle. 

For  two  years  previous  to  the  General  Election  of 
1885,  Charley  did  not  do  anything  very  startling, 
and  his  quiet  attitude  led  to  a  little  grumbling 
among  the  more  unruly  members  of  his  party.  He 
made  speeches  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  but 
they  simply  urged  a  strictly  constitutional  policy. 
He  was,  however,  as  it  turned  out,  not  so  much 
resting  as  preparing  to  spring.  For  one  thing,  he 
was  gradually  educating  the  Irish  people  to  the 
absolute  necessity  of  self-government,  and  pre- 
paring the  English  Government  to  resign  them- 
selves to  the  fact  that  sooner  or  later  they  must 
pass  a  Home  Rule  Bill. 

Moreover,  he  was  in  bad  health  for  a  good  part 
of  this  time,  and  had  many  family  and  financial 
troubles.  The  sudden  death  of  his  sister  Fanny 
also  affected  him  deeply,  as  it  did  also  our  sister 
Anna,  who  on  hearing  the  sad  news  fell  into  a 
fit  which  very  nearly  proved  fatal.  Prior  to  the 
General  Election,  however,  he  made  a  tour  of 

Ireland,  delivering  a  number  of  forcible  speeches. 

211 


212      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

At  Arklow  he  stated  definitely  what,  in  his  view, 
the  demand  of  Ireland  should  be.  **  We  cannot," 
he  said,  "  ask  for  less  than  the  restitution  of 
Grattan's  Parliament,  with  its  important  privi- 
leges and  wide,  far-reaching  constitution.  But," 
he  said  significantly,  "  no  man  has  a  right  to  fix 
the  boundary  of  the  march  of  a  nation." 

It  is  noticeable  that,  during  the  visit  of  the  Prince 
and  Princess  of  Wales  to  Ireland  in  1885,  Charley, 
while  recommending  that  the  royal  visitors  should 
not  be  given  an  official  reception  on  behalf  of  the 
Irish  people,  pleaded  that  they  should  be  treated 
with  courtesy,  and  that  there  should  be  no  hostile 
demonstrations . 

Mr.  Gladstone  had  announced  his  intention  to 
renew  the  Crimes  Act,  though  in  a  modified  form, 
and  this  Charley  was  determined  to  prevent.  He 
did  so  by  throwing  his  full  force  on  the  side  of  the 
Tories  when  an  amendment  was  moved  to  the 
Budget  Bill  on  June  8.  The  result  was  that  the 
Government  were  defeated  by  twelve  votes,  the 
announcement  being  greeted  by  triumphant  cries 
of  "  No  coercion  !"  from  the  Irish  benches.  The 
Tories  formed  a  temporary  Ministry,  but,  being 
placed  entirely  at  the  mercy  of  the  Irish  party,  a 
dissolution  was  soon  necessary. 

Charley  seized  the  opportunity  of  the  English 
being  entangled  in  their  own  affairs  to  have  a 
really  beneficial  Land  Bill  passed  through  the 
House,  whereby  advances  could  be  made  by  the 


IN  POWER  213 

State  to  enable  tenants  to  purchase  their  holdings 
from  the  landlords.  The  repayment  of  the  pur- 
chase money  was  spread  over  a  period  of  forty- 
nine  years,  and  a  sum  of  £5,000,000  was  set  aside 
for  the  purpose  out  of  the  surplus  fund  of  the 
Irish  Disestablished  Church. 

Home  Rule  was  now  Charley's  one  idea,  as  he 
explained  in  a  speech  at  Dublin  during  the  General 
Election  campaign,  in  which  he  said:  "  It  is  not 
now  a  question  of  self-government  for  Ireland; 
it  is  only  a  question  as  to  how  much  of  the 
self-government  they  will  be  able  to  cheat  us 
out  of.  .  .  .  I  hope  that  it  may  not  be  for  us  in 
the  new  Pailiament  to  devote  our  attention  to 
subsidiary  measures,  and  that  it  may  be 
possible  for  us  to  have  a  programme  and  a 
platform  with  only  one  plank,  and  that  one 
plank  national  independence." 

The  result  of  the  election  was  a  Liberal  majority 
of  eighty-six  over  the  Conservatives,  which  was 
exactly  equalled  by  the  number  of  Nationalists 
returned.  Charley  therefore  was  the  entire  master 
of  the  situation.  If  he  joined  Mr.  Gladstone,  the 
combined  Liberal  and  Nationalist  parties  had  an 
overwhelming  majority  over  the  Tories;  if  he 
opposed  Mr.  Gladstone,  and  threw  his  eighty-six 
votes  into  the  Tory  scale,  the  Government  majorit}^ 
was  nullified. 


214      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

The  Home  Rule  Bill. 

Towards  1886  it  became  rumoured  more  and 
more  seriously  that  Mr.  Gladstone  was  considering 
the  form  which  a  Home  Rule  Bill  should  take. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  Liberal  Premier  had  for 
some  time  past  been  coming  nearer  and  nearer  to 
the  belief  that  it  was  time  that  legislative  inde- 
pendence should  be  granted  to  Ireland. 

Directly  Mr.  Gladstone  returned  to  office  he 
set  to  work  on  the  Home  Rule  Bill.  On  the  ques- 
tion of  the  powers  to  be  granted  to  the  Irish 
Parliament,  Mr.  Gladstone  soon  found  himself  in 
complete  disagreement  with  Mr.  Chamberlain, 
who  was  the  President  of  the  Local  Government 
Board.  In  spite  of  each  making  small  concessions 
to  one  another's  views,  they  had  to  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  at  the  bottom  their  principles 
were  diametrically  opposed.  The  inevitable  result 
occurred  on  March  26,  1886,  when  Mr.  Chamber- 
lain resigned  his  position  in  the  Cabinet. 

The  details  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  measure  were  re- 
vealed to  a  tensely  expectant  House  on  April  8, 
1886,  when  he  formally  moved  the  first  reading  of 
the  Home  Rule  Bill. 

Under  his  scheme  there  was  to  be  both  an  Irish 
Executive  and  Irish  Parliament,  though  the  latter 
was  not  to  make  any  laws  dealing  with  certain 
subjects,  such  as  the  restraint  of  educational 
freedom,  the    endowment    of    religion,   and  the 


IN  POWER  215 

Customs  or  Excise.  The  Imperial  Parliament  alone 
should  have  power  to  decide  as  to  peace  or  war, 
and  to  control  the  army,  navy,  and  other  forces, 
regulate  relations  with  the  colonies  and  foreign 
countries,  supervise  trade,  the  Post -Office  and 
coinage,  and  have  the  disposal  of  titles  and  honours 
and  other  dignities.  All  the  Irish  police  were 
finally  to  come  under  the  control  of  the  Irish 
Parliament,  the  Dublin  Metropolitan  Police  after 
two  years,  and  the  Constabulary  after  a  period  to 
be  fixed.  Ireland  was  not  to  be  represented  in 
the  Imperial  Parliament. 

After  the  Home  Rule  Bill  had  been  read  the 
first  time,  Mr.  Gladstone  brought  in  a  Bill  that 
had  for  its  intention  the  establishment  of  a  peasant 
proprietary  in  Ireland.  This  was  a  rather  far- 
reaching  measure,  enabling  the  land  to  be  obtained 
by  the  State  at  twenty  years'  purchase,  and  then 
sold  to  the  tenants  on  a  system  of  instalments 
spread  over  forty- nine  years.  It  certainly  was 
not  welcomed  by  either  the  landlords  or  the 
tenants.  Mr.  Gladstone  himself  realized  this  so 
much  that  he  practically  shelved  this  Land  Bill, 
which  died  a  natural  death  when  the  Government 
went  out  in  July. 

The  second  reading  of  the  Home  Rule  Bill  was 
moved  by  Mr.  Gladstone  on  May  lo,  and  the 
debate  on  it  lasted  for  a  month.  Mr.  Bright,  after 
earnest  consideration,  finally  declared  himself 
against  the  Bill. 


2i6      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

.  Charley  waited  until  the  final  night  of  the  debate 
to  express  his  opinion.  He  warned  the  House 
that  their  rejection  of  the  Bill  (which,  with  his 
customary  foresight,  he  expected)  would  mean  an 
outburst  of  indignation  in  Ireland,  with  which 
not  even  the  many  stringent  measures  already  in 
force  would  be  sufficient  to  cope. 

The  second  reading  was,  however,  rejected  by 
343  to  313  votes,  and  Mr.  Gladstone  and  his  party 
went  to  the  country,  strange  to  say,  in  complete 
alliance  with  the  Irish  Nationalists.  The  result 
of  the  election  showed  a  tremendous  swing  of  the 
pendulum,  the  Unionists  coming  in  with  394  votes 
against  the  276  of  the  combined  Liberal  and  Irish 
parties.  England  was  certainly  not  prepared  at 
that  time  to  grant  Home  Rule,  especially  with 
two  such  influential  members  of  the  Liberal  party 
as  Mr.  Chamberlain  and  Mr.  Bright  opposed  to  it. 

The  "  Plan  of  Campaign." 

Towards  the  end  of  1886  considerable  trouble 
occurred  in  the  South  of  Ireland,  the  Tories'  boast, 
that  in  spite  of  the  rejection  of  the  Home  Rule 
Bill  peace  would  prevail  in  Ireland,  proving  at 
best  the  pious  hope.  In  order  to  prevent  evic- 
tions, Mr.  William  O'Brien  concocted  a  scheme 
whereby,  when  landlords  refused  to  make  reason- 
able reductions  in  rent,  the  tenants  should  be 
enabled  to  hold  out  by  money  provided  partly  by 


IN  POWER  217 

the  League  in  Dublin,  and  partly  by  local  sym- 
pathizers. He  proposed  that  in  every  district  a 
managing  committee  should  be  established,  with 
whom  the  rent  was  to  be  banked,  being  used,  if 
the  landlords  proved  obstinate,  as  a  weapon 
against  them.  That  is  a  very  rough  sketch  of  this 
famous  scheme,  to  which  O'Brien  soon  gained  the 
adherence  of  Dillon. 

Charley  was  ill  at  the  time,  otherwise  things 
might  not  have  gone  so  far  as  they  did.  He  re- 
fused to  discuss  the  Plan  of  Campaign,  with  which 
he  was  not  at  all  in  agreement,  as  he  believed  at 
that  time  in  a  peaceful  agitation  with  regard  to 
the  land  question,  whereas  what  was  proposed 
would  bring  back  the  agrarian  troubles,  with  all 
their  consequences  of  outrage  and  murder.  How- 
ever, before  it  had  been  properly  discussed,  and 
certainly  before  the  scheme  had  been  approved  by 
the  chief  of  the  Irish  party,  details  of  it  were 
published  in  the  newspapers.  Charley  found  him- 
self unwillingly  committed  to  the  scheme,  which 
had  immediately  produced  the  outburst  of  violence 
which  he  feared  it  would,  and  which  led  to  the 
passing  of  the  Crimes  Act.  This  measure,  which 
was  of  a  permanent  nature,  suspended  the  right 
of  trial  by  jury  in  a  number  of  cases  of  agrarian 
disorder,  substituting  instead  trial  by  magistrates. 
Power  was  given  to  the  Lord  Lieutenant  to  pro- 
claim disturbed  districts  and  dangerous  associa- 
tions.    Of  course,  the  only  result  was,  as  before, 


2i8      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

scenes  of  violence  on  the  part  of  both  the  authori- 
ties and  the  tenants^  which  lasted  for  about  two 
years. 

The  Crimes  Act  practically  drove  the  National- 
ists into  the  arms  of  the  Liberals.  It  was  curious 
that,  when  Mr.  Gladstone's  portrait  became  nearly 
as  popular  in  the  West  of  Ireland  as  Charley's,  the 
latter  said,  in  reply  to  a  question  as  to  what  he 
thought  of  Mr.  Gladstone:  "I  think  of  Mr.  Glad- 
stone and  the  English  people  what  I  have  always 
thought  of  them.  They  will  do  what  we  can  make 
them  do."  He  seemed  rather  amused  at  the 
enthusiastic  friendship  which  many  of  his  followers 
displayed  towards  the  Liberal  party,  and  said  on 
one  occasion:  "I  do  not  object  to  an  English 
alliance  which  we  can  control;  I  object  to  an 
English  alliance  which  the  English  control."  To 
such  a  pitch  did  this  friendship  between  old 
enemies  extend  that  on  one  occasion  Charley  drove 
with  Lord  (then  Mr.)  Morle}/  to  a  great  meeting 
at  St.  James's  Hall,  London,  where  he  actually 
succeeded  in  rousing  his  English  audience  to  a 
state  of  wild  enthusiasm. 

His  health  by  this  had  become  very  bad  indeed, 
and  he  himself  was  only  too  sensible  of  it.  He 
surprised  the  members  of  the  Eighty  Club,  in  a 
speech  delivered  before  them  in  1888,  by  an  ad- 
mission, of  a  startlingly  frank  nature  for  him,  not 
only  of  his  state  of  health,  but  also  of  the  fact  that 
to  it  was  due  the  adoption  of  the  Plan  of  Cam- 


IN  POWER  219 

paign,  against  his  better  judgment.     In  his  speech 
he  said: 

I  was  ill,  dangerously  ill.  It  was  an  illness 
from  which  I  have  not  entirely  recovered  up 
to  this  day.  I  was  so  ill  that  I  could  not  put 
pen  to  paper,  or  even  read  a  newspaper.  I 
knew  nothing  about  the  movement  until 
weeks  after  it  had  started,  and  even  then  I 
was  so  feeble  that  for  several  months,  abso- 
lutely up  to  the  meeting  of  Parliament,  I  was 
positively  unable  to  take  part  in  any  public 
matter,  and  was  scarcely  able  to  do  so  for 
months  after.  If  I  had  been  in  a  position  to 
advise  about  it,  I  candidly  admit  to  you  that 
I  should  have  advised  against  it. 

Mr.  Gladstone,  in  a  speech  delivered  a  month 
afterwards,  exonerated  to  some  extent  the  Plan 
of  Campaign,  using  the  following  words,  which 
are  noteworthy  in  view  of  these  and  more  modern 
occurrences : 

Do  not  suppose  that  I  think  the  Plan  of 
Campaign  is  a  good  thing  in  itself,  or  that  I 
speak  of  it  as  such.  I  lament  everything  in 
the  nature  of  machinery  for  governing  a 
country  outside  the  regular  law  of  the  country. 
But  there  are  circumstances  in  which  that 
machinery,  though  it  may  be  an  evil  in  itself 
— and  it  is  an  evil,  because  it  lets  loose  many 
bad  passions,  and  gives  to  bad  men  the  power 


220      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

of  playing  themselves  off  as  good  men,  and  in 
a  multitude  of  ways  relaxes  the  ties  and  bonds 
that  unite  society  —  I  say  there  are  many 
circumstances  in  which  it  is  an  infinitely 
smaller  evil  to  use  this  machinery  than  to 
leave  the  people  to  perish. 

In  another  speech,  delivered  at  Bingley  Hall, 
Birmingham,  in  1888,  Mr.  Gladstone,  in  eloquent 
and  even  in  passionate  words,  appealed  to  his 
audience  on  behalf  of  Home  Rule.     He  said : 

Our  opponents  teach  you  to  rely  on  the  use 
of  this  deserted  and  enfeebled  and  super- 
annuated weapon  of  coercion.  We  teach  you 
to  rely  upon  Irish  affection  and  goodwill. 
We  teach  you  not  to  speculate  on  the  forma- 
tion of  that  sentiment.  We  show  you  that  it 
is  formed  already,  it  is  in  full  force,  it  is  ready 
to  burst  forth  from  every  Irish  heart  and  from 
every  Irish  voice.  We  only  beseech  you,  by 
resolute  persistence  in  that  policy  you  have 
adopted,  to  foster,  to  cherish,  to  consolidate, 
that  sentiment,  and  so  to  act  that  in  space 
it  shall  spread  from  the  north  of  Ireland  to 
the  south,  and  from  the  west  of  Ireland  to 
the  east;  and  in  time  it  shall  extend  and 
endure  from  this  present  date  until  the  last 
years  and  the  last  of  the  centuries  that  may 
still  be  reserved  in  the  counsels  of  Providence 
to  work  out  the  destinies  of  mankind. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  PIGOTT  LETTERS 

The  "  Times  "  Campaign. 

My  brother's  policy  had  always  been  more  or 
less  condemned,  and  even  referred  to  as  the 
cause  of  the  agrarian  outrages,  by  the  English 
Times. 

But  a  shock  passed  through  the  whole  of  the 
English-speaking  races  when,  in  the  course  of  the 
first  of  a  series  of  articles  appearing  under  the  title 
"  Parnellism  and  Crime,"  the  Times  printed  the 
following  letter: 

Dear  Sir, 

I  am  not  surprised  at  your  friend's 
anger,  but  he  and  you  should  know  that  to 
denounce  the  murders  was  the  only  course 
open  to  us.  To  do  that  promptly  was  plainly 
our  best  policy.  But  you  can  tell  him  and  all 
others  concerned  that,  though  I  regret  the 
accident  of  Lord  F.  Cavendish's  death,  I 
cannot  refuse  to  admit  that  Burke  got  no 
more  than  his  deserts.     You  are  at  liberty 

221 


222      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

to  show  him  this,  and  others  whom  you  can 
trust  also,  but  let  not  my  address  be  known. 
He  can  write  to  the  House  of  Commons. 
Yours  very  truly, 

Charles  S.  Parnell. 

The  letter  was  given  in  facsimile,  and  the  article 
stated  that,  though  the  body  of  the  manuscript 
was  not  in  Charley's  handwriting,  the  signature 
and  the  words  **  Yours  very  truly  "  were  obviously 
his.  "  If  any  member  of  Parliament,"  said  the 
writer  of  the  article,  **  doubts  the  fact,  he  can 
easily  satisfy  himself  in  the  matter  by  comparing 
the  handwriting  with  that  of  Mr.  Parnell  in  the  book 
containing  the  signatures  of  members  when  they 
first  take  their  seats  in  the  House  of  Commons." 

I  came  over  to  England  from  America  when  the 
Commission  was  sitting,  and  then  carefully  ex- 
amined the  original  letter.  I  had  no  hesitation 
in  saying  that  the  signature  was  not  that  of  my 
brother,  while  the  style  in  which  the  letter  was 
written  was  not  at  all  like  that  which  he  used  in 
either  writing  or  speaking. 

The  news  spread  like  wildfire,  and  I  am  afraid 
was  generally  believed  in.  On  the  evening  of  the 
publication  of  the  letter  Charley  went  into  the 
House  of  Commons  without  having  the  slightest 
idea  of  what  had  happened,  as  he  had  not  read 
the  Times,  and  had  not  been  informed  by  anybody 
of  the  serious   allegation   that  had  been  made 


IN  POWER  223 

against  him.  Before  he  entered  the  Chamber  he 
met  Mr.  Harrington,  who  told  him  what  had  hap- 
pened, and  they  went  into  the  library  and  care- 
fully examined  the  facsimile  letter  in  the  Times. 
Charley  seemed  perfectly  unconcerned,  and  simply 
pointed  to  the  S  in  his  supposed  signature,  and 
observed  in  a  casual  tone  of  voice:  "  I  did  not 
make  an  S  like  that  since  1878." 


Charley's  Explanation. 

On  that  same  evening  Charley  rose  from  his 
place  in  the  House,  amid  an  intense  hush,  and 
made  a  statement  with  regard  to  the  Times  letter 
which  incidentally  gives  some  interesting  sidelights 
on  his  character  and  shows  his  own  methods  of 
writing. 

After  referring  to  the  letter  as  a  **  precious  con- 
coction," he  said  that  he  supposed  at  first  that 
the  blank  sheet  containing  his  signature,  such  as 
many  members  are  frequentl}^  asked  for,  had  fallen 
into  improper  hands  and  been  misused ;  but  when 
he  actually  saw  the  facsimile  he  at  once  recognized 
that  it  was  an  "  audacious  and  unblushing  fabrica- 
tion," there  being  only  two  letters  in  the  whole 
signature  which  bore  any  resemblance  to  his  own 
method  of  writing  his  name.     He  continued : 

Its  whole  character  is  entirely  different.     I 
unfortunately  write  a  very  cramped  hand, 


224      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

my  letters  huddle  into  each  other,  and  I  write 
with  great  difficulty  and  slowness.  It  is,  in 
fact,  a  labour  and  a  toil  for  me  to  write  any- 
thing at  all.  But  the  signature  in  question 
is  wiitten  by  a  ready  penman,  who  has 
evidently  covered  as  many  leagues  of  letter 
paper  in  his  life  as  I  have  yards.  .  .  .  The 
letter  does  not  purport  to  be  in  my  hand- 
writing. We  are  not  informed  who  has 
written  it.  It  is  not  even  alleged  that  it  was 
written  b}'^  an5/one  who  was  ever  associated 
with  me.  The  name  of  the  anonymous  letter- 
writer  is  not  mentioned.  I  do  not  know  who 
he  can  be.  The  writing  is  strange  to  me.  I 
think  I  should  insult  myself  if  I  said — I  think, 
however,  that  I  perhaps  ought  to  say  it,  in 
order  that  my  denial  may  be  full  and  complete 
— that  I  certainly  never  heard  of  the  letter. 
I  never  directed  such  a  letter  to  be  written. 
I  never  saw  such  a  letter  before  I  saw  it  in 
the  Times.  The  subject-matter  of  the  letter 
is  preposterous  on  the  surface.  The  phrase- 
ology of  it  is  absurd — as  absurd  as  any  phrase- 
ology that  could  be  attributed  to  me  could 
possibly  be.  In  every  part  of  it  it  bears 
absolute  and  irrefutable  evidence  of  want  of 
genuineness  and  want  of  authenticity. 

The  matter  was  not  openly  referred  to  again  for 
some  time,  but  the  articles  under  the  heading 
"  Parnellism  and  Crime  "  still  continued  to  appear 
in  the  Times.     Then,  owing  to  certain  references 


IN  POWER  225 

made  to  him  in  the  course  of  the  articles,  Mr. 
F.  H.  O'Donnell,  a  former  M.P.,  brought  an  action 
for  libel  against  the  Times.  During  the  hearing 
of  the  action  further  allegations  were  made  against 
my  brother  and  his  party. 


The  Commission. 

Charley  now  found  himself  obliged  to  do  some- 
thing to  clear  his  character.  Accordingly,  he 
asked  the  Government  to  appoint  a  Select  Com- 
mittee to  inquire  as  to  the  authorship  of  the  letter. 
The  Government  would  not  agree  to  this,  but 
instead  appointed  a  Special  Commission  on 
August  13,  1888,  to  investigate  the  accuracy  of  the 
charges  made  by  the  Times  throughout  the  articles 
complained  of — a  reference  about  as  wide  as  could 
possibly  be  conceived.  The  Special  Commission 
consisted  of  Mr,  Justice  Hannen,  Mr.  Justice  Day, 
and  Mr.  Justice  Smith,  with  the  Attorney-General 
leading  for  the  Times,  and  Sir  Charles  Russell 
leading  for  Charley. 

The  preliminary  proceedings  were  very  lengthy, 
and  dealt  with  all  manner  of  irrelevant  subjects, 
witnesses  being  called  from  all  parts  of  Ireland. 
Finally,  however,  Pigott,  who  was  said  to  have 
sold  the  letters  to  the  Times,  was  put  into  the  box. 
His  cross-examination  by  Sir  Charles  Russell  was 
one  of  the  most  searching  and  merciless  on  record. 
Pigott  was  given  a  number  of  words  to  write,  and 

15 


226      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

it  was  found  that  those  misspelt  in  the  letters  were 
also  misspelt  by  him.  This  was  a  very  important 
point,  because  it  was  known  that  my  brother  was 
accurate  to  a  degree  about  his  spelling. 

On  the  day  following  his  cross-examination, 
Pigott  was  found  to  be  absent,  and  news  of  his 
death  was  received  latei,  under  circumstances 
which  are  descnbed  farther  on  in  my  book. 

I  was  in  court  with  Charley  during  the  Pigott 
trial,  and  noticed  that  he  watched  the  proceed- 
ings with  extreme  nervousness.  He  was  in  very 
bad  health  at  this  time,  and  the  publication  of 
these  forgeries,  with  the  calumnies  to  which  they 
gave  rise,  and  the  strain  of  the  long  trial,  visibly 
affected  him,  weighed  down  as  he  already  was 
with  the  presentiment  of  impending  calamity. 

One  evening,  after  the  case  had  concluded  for 
the  day,  I  went  round  with  Charley  to  Sir  Charles 
Russell's  office,  where  an  angry  scene  occurred. 
Sir  Charles  refused  to  follow  Charley's  advice  on  a 
certain  point  connected  with  the  conduct  of  the 
case,  and  heated  words  weie  exchanged.  Charley 
and  I  went  round  to  the  Charing  Cross  Hotel  for 
dinner,  and  I  remember  his  remarking  in  a  tone  of 
utter  weariness  and  depression:  "Everyone  is 
against  me — even  my  own  counsel  and  the  Irish 
people.  They  are  all  right  so  long  as  they  have 
their  hands  in  your  pocket.  But  I  know  that  I 
shall  have  a  fairer  trial  in  England  than  in  Ireland, 
where  both  Judge  and  jurors  are  bought." 


IN  POWER  227 

Charley,  who  was  looking  very  ill,  then  entered 
the  box,  and  calmly  denied  the  accusations  against 
him,  though  with  the  disappearance  of  Pigott 
the  purpose  of  the  proceedings  was  really  at  an 
end.  The  Commission,  however,  still  continued 
for  some  weeks,  and  there  was  a  further  lapse 
before  the  report  was  issued. 

In  their  finding,  the  Commission  held  that  the 
NationaUst  M.P/s  had  not  collectively  engaged  in 
any  conspiracy  to  obtain  the  independence  of 
Ireland,  but  that  certain  Nationalists  inside  and 
outside  Parliament  were  anxious  for  separation, 
and  that  some  of  them  wished  to  use  the  Land 
League  as  an  indirect  means  towards  separation. 

The  report  of  the  Commission,  the  text  of  which 
was  very  lengthy,  really  produced  nothing  of  any 
value.  What  everyone  wanted  to  know  was 
whether  the  letter  signed  "Charles  S.  Parnell" 
was  actually  in  my  brother's  handwriting.  That 
was  decided  once  and  for  all  by  Pigott' s  evidence 
in  the  witness-box,  and  his  subsequent  flight  and 
confession,  followed  by  his  suicide. 

An  Ovation. 

Charley's  next  appearance  in  the  House  was  the 
sign  for  a  demonstration  almost  unique  in  history. 
When  he  walked  to  his  place,  the  whole  of  the 
Liberal  party,  including  the  Front  Bench,  rose  to 
their  feet  and  cheered,  while  a  large  number  of 


228      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

the  Tories  followed  their  example.  The  wildest 
enthusiasm,  of  course,  prevailed  on  the  Irish 
benches. 

Charley's  attitude  was  characteristic.  As  he 
sat  down,  apparently  unconcerned,  though  his 
pale  face  and  the  twitching  of  his  hands  betrayed 
his  deep  emotion,  he  remarked  to  the  member  next 
him:  **  Why  do  you  fellows  stand  up  ?  It  almost 
frightened  me." 

This  was  the  height  of  Charley's  glory.  Few, 
however,  realized — perhaps  not  even  himself — that 
the  clouds  which  had  for  some  time  been  gathering 
over  his  head,  were  so  soon  to  burst. 


BOOK   IV 

A  LOSING  FIGHT 

"  Wail  ye,  wail  ye  for  the  Mighty  One  !    Wail  ye,  wail  ye  for 
the  dead  ! 
Quench  the  hearth  and  hold  the  breath — ^with  ashes  strew 
the  head." 

Davis 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  DIVORCE,  AND  AFTER 

I  FEEL  bound  briefly  to  refer  to  this  unfortunate 
affair,  as  it  proved  to  be  the  turning-point  of 
Charley's  career.  Charley  had  known  Captain 
O'Shea  for  many  years.  He  had,  as  I  have  stated, 
acted  as  an  intermediary  between  my  brother, 
Mr.  Gladstone,  and  Mr.  Chamberlain,  with  the 
result  that  the  understanding  known  as  the 
Kilmainham  Treaty  was  arrived  at.  The  first 
meeting  between  Charley  and  Mrs.  O'Shea  was  at 
a  dinner-party  in  London,  when  she  referred  to 
him  by  the  name  under  which  he  is  still  known  in 
the  West  of  Ireland — "  The  Uncrowned  King." 

An  intimate  friendship  had  sprung  up  between 
Charley  and  the  O' Sheas,  who  were  then  living  near 
to  one  another  at  Eltham  in  Kent.  In  1881 
Captain  O'Shea  found  a  portmanteau  belonging 
to  Charley  in  his  house.  He  immediately  chal- 
lenged him  to  a  duel  in  France,  but  the  matter, 
through  the  intercession  of  Mrs.  O'Shea,  was 
smoothed  over. 

At  the  General  Election  of  1886,  Mr.  T.  P. 
O'Connor  having  been  elected  for  both  Galway 

231 


232      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

and  the  Scotland  Division  of  Liverpool,  chose  to 
sit  for  the  latter  constituency.  Charley  insisted 
upon  putting  up  Captain  O'Shea  for  the  vacant 
seat,  in  spite  of  strong  opposition,  even  among 
his  own  adherents,  including  Mr.  Biggar.  The 
crowd  at  Galway,  which  Charley  addressed,  was  a 
sullen  and  even  a  hostile  one ;  but  Charley  managed 
to  bring  it  round  to  his  views,  or  at  any  rate  to 
arouse  sufficient  loyalty  to  himself  to  get  Captain 
O'Shea  returned  at  the  head  of  the  poll.  The 
incident,  however,  roused  many  of  Charley's  most 
devoted  supporters  to  very  plain  language  as  to  his 
using  his  political  influence  on  behalf  of  a  man 
with  the  name  of  whose  wife  rumour  associated 
him. 

I  always  suspected  Captain  O'Shea  of  being  a 
false  friend  of  Charley's,  and  simply  waiting  his 
time  to  strike  a  fatal  blow.  As  I  said  to  a  gentle- 
man who  knew  both  parties:  "  Don't  you  think, 
if  there  was  anything  in  it,  that  Captain  O'Shea 
would  have  found  it  out  and  taken  some  action 
long  before  the  divorce  suit  ?" 

It  was  just  when  Charley's  career  never  seemed 
more  promising  that  Captain  O'Shea  filed  his 
petition  for  divorce,  on  December  28,  1889. 
When  served  with  the  divorce  papers,  Charley,  as 
usual,  showed  no  emotion,  but  negligently  threw 
them  on  one  side.  I  do  not  think,  however,  that 
he  entirely  realized  how  critical  his  condition  was. 

The  trial  commenced  on  Saturday,  November  15. 


A  LOSING  FIGHT  233 

To  my  knowledge,  it  was  Charley's  original  inten- 
tion to  defend  the  proceedings,  but  some  of  his 
friends  persuaded  him  not  to  do  so.  I  do  not  pro- 
pose to  revive  any  of  the  evidence  given  in  the 
course  of  the  case.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  that  a 
decree  nisi  was  pronounced,  which  in  due  course 
was  made  absolute.  As  far  as  our  family  was 
concerned,  we  were  unanimous  in  regarding  the 
institution  of  proceedings  at  this  time  as  being 
due  to  a  political  plot,  having  for  its  object  the 
ruin  of  Charley.  Personally  I  was  of  opinion  that 
O'Shea  himself  was  directly  responsible,  and  was 
not  acting  simply  on  his  own  accord.  Our  mother's 
views,  given  in  her  usual  direct  language,  seem 
worth  quoting.  She  said  in  her  letter  to  me:  "  It 
was  a  Government  plot  to  ruin  him  and  get  rid  of 
him  out  of  Irish  political  life."  Not  alone  from 
her,  but  from  many  people  in  a  position  to  know, 
I  gathered  that,  unable  to  beat  Charley  in  fair 
fight,  his  political  enemies  had  chosen  this  means 
of  attacking  him  from  behind. 

Directly  the  divorce  decree  was  declared  abso- 
lute— I  think  in  June,  1891 — Charley  married  Mrs. 
O'Shea.  I  was  not  in  England  at  the  time,  but 
friends  who  were  present  at  the  ceremony  say 
that  Charley's  appearance  was  a  very  painful  one. 
He  looked  thoroughly  miserable  and  worn-out, 
and  a  physical  wreck.  After  the  marriage  they 
went  to  live  at  9,  Walsingham  Terrace,  West 
Brighton. 


234      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 


A  Visit  to  Mrs.  Parnell. 

It  was  after  my  brother's  death  that  the 
settHng  up  of  his  legal  affairs  necessitated  my 
having  an  interview  with  his  widow,  whom  I 
had  not  met  up  till  now.  I  therefore  went 
across  from  Avondale  to  Brighton,  where  I 
spent  a  few  days  helping  Mrs.  Parnell  to  arrange 
matters. 

When  I  arrived  at  the  house,  I  was  shown  into 
Charley's  sitting-room.  It  looked  dreary  enough, 
with  many  of  his  familiar  possessions  meeting  the 
eye  on  every  side;  and  it  seemed  to  me  still  more 
sad  when  two  of  his  favourite  setters  came  in,  and 
rushing  up  to  the  arm-chair  where  I  was  sitting — 
his  own  arm-chair — overwhelmed  me  with  caresses. 
In  a  few  moments  Mrs.  C.  S.  Parnell  herself  came 
in  and  welcomed  me  with  a  very  sad  smile.  She 
insisted  that  I  should  remain  in  the  arm-chair, 
saying  how  very  much  I  resembled  Charley,  who 
was  always  talking  about  me  and  my  fruit-growing 
in  America. 

She  seemed  just  such  a  woman  as  would  attract 
Charley — a  brilliant  conversationalist,  keen  on 
society,  and  giving  the  impression  that  alto- 
gether, with  her  talent  and  fascination  and  her 
undoubted  regard  for  him,  she  might  have,  under 
other  circumstances,  exercised  a  great  influence 
in  Irish  pohtics.     The  two  of  us,  with  Mr.  Hawks- 


A  LOSING  FIGHT  235 

ley,  her  solicitor,  and  Mr.  Campbell,  who  had  come 
over  with  me  from  Ireland,  discussed  the  arrange- 
ment of  Charley's  affairs  during  this  and  several 
subsequent  visits. 

I  remained  in  Brighton  for  about  a  week,  going 
out  walking  every  day  with  Charley's  dogs,  who 
became  very  fond  of  me.  In  the  evenings  Mrs. 
Parnell,  the  Misses  O'Shea,  and  Mr.  Harrison,  a 
great  friend  of  Charley's,  used  to  visit  me  in  my 
parlour.  I  frequently  played  chess  with  my  sister- 
in-law,  who  was  quite  a  good  player,  and  who  said 
that  she  often  tried  to  get  Charley  to  have  a  game 
of  chess  with  her  in  order  to  distract  his  mind,  but 
after  playing  for  a  little  time  he  usually  complained 
of  a  headache. 

On  the  whole,  considering  the  unfortunate  occa- 
sion of  my  visit,  I  spent  a  pleasant  time  during 
my  week  at  Brighton.  I  noticed  that  on  every 
occasion  when  I  called  on  her,  Mrs.  Parnell  made 
me  sit  in  Charley's  arm-chair.  When  I  was 
leaving  and  saying  good-bye  to  her  at  the  door, 
she  asked  me  to  come  and  see  her  again  before  I 
went  back  to  Ireland.  I  wrote  to  her  just  before 
going,  saying  that  I  proposed  coming  down  to  see 
her,  but  she  wired  me  not  to  come,  as  she  was  ill. 
That  was  the  only  time  that  I  saw  Mrs.  Parnell, 
and  I  have  had  no  direct  communication  with  her 
since,  though  she  wrote  on  one  occasion  to  her 
solicitor  to  say  that  she  would  be  glad  to  see  me, 
but  not  any  other  members  of  my  family,  owing 


236      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

to  the  bitterness  which  prevailed  between  them. 
I  often  wished  for  an  opportunity  of  seeing  her, 
but  it  never  came. 


The  Party's  Attitude. 

The  decree  nisi  was  pronounced  on  November  17, 
1890. 

The  question  was,  What  was  going  to  be  the 
attitude  of  Charley's  party  towards  himself  under 
these  altered  circumstances  ? 

On  November  18,  the  day  following  the  an- 
nouncement of  the  judgment,  a  crowded  meeting 
of  the  National  League  was  held  in  Dublin,  with 
Mr.  John  Redmond  in  the  chair.  The  attitude  of 
all  the  speakers  was  one  of  unswerving  loyalty 
towards  their  leader.  The  divorce  proceedings 
were  regarded  simply  as  a  side-issue  which  did  not 
in  any  way  interfere  with  Charley's  political  posi- 
tion or  future.  A  unanimous  resolution  embody- 
ing these  views  was  passed  by  the  meeting,  and  on 
the  following  day  an  inspired  statement  was  issued 
by  the  Freeman's  Journal,  stating  that  Charley 
had  no  intention  of  resigning  his  position.  Indi- 
vidual members  of  the  Irish  party  expressed  in 
newspaper  interviews  their  intention  of  loyally 
supporting  their  leader,  and  even  Mr.  Labouchere 
supported  him  in  Truth. 

A  mass  meeting  of  Irish  NationaUsts  and 
Liberals  held  on  November  20  at  the  Leinster 


A  LOSING  FIGHT  237 

Hall,  Dublin,  still  more  emphatically  voiced  the 
support  of  the  Irish  people.  A  few  sentences  from 
the  speeches  of  the  principal  members  of  the  party 
give  some  idea  of  the  spirit  that  then  prevailed : 

I  say  it  would  be  foolish  and  absurd  in  the 
highest  degree  were  we  at  a  moment  like  this, 
because  of  a  temporary  outcry  over  a  case 
that  in  London  would  be  forgotten  to-morrow 
if  there  were  a  repetition  of  the  Whitechapel 
murders  ...  to  surrender  the  great  Chief  who 
has  led  us  so  far  forward  {Mr.  Healy). 

I  ask  you,  Suppose  a  man  has  gone  morally 
wrong  in  some  case,  through  whatever  tempta- 
tion we  know  not,  is  that  the  least  reason  to 
excuse  him  from  doing  his  duty  to  the 
people  whom  he  is  leading  to  victory  ?  (Mr. 
McCarthy) . 

Were  the  soldiers  of  the  Nile  and  the  sol- 
diers of  Waterloo  to  stand  still  in  the  moment 
of  combative  battle  to  inquire  whether  their 
commander  had  observed  one  of  the  ten 
commandments  ?  (The  McDermoU). 

The  resolution  passed  unanimously  at  this  meet- 
ing was  couched  in  the  following  terms : 

That  this  meeting,  interpreting  the  senti- 
ment of  the  Irish  people  that  no  side-issue 
shall  be  permitted  to  obstruct  the  progress 
of  the  great  cause  ofjHome  Rule  forjireland,  de- 
clares that  in  all  political  matters^Mr.  Parnell 


238      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

possesses  the  confidence  of  the  Irish  nation, 
and  that  this  meeting  rejoices  at  the  deter- 
mination of  the  Irish  ParUamentary  party  to 
stand  by  their  leader. 

That  a  similar  feeling  existed  in  America  was 
shown  by  the  following  cablegram,  sent  by  four 
of  the  five  delegates*  who  had  just  been  sent  to 
the  United  States  to  collect  funds  for  the  Irish 
cause: 

We  stand  firmly  by  the  leadership  of  the 
man  who  has  brought  the  Irish  people  through 
unparalleled  difficulties  and  dangers,  from 
servitude  and  despair,  to  the  very  threshold 
of  emancipation,  with  a  genius,  courage,  and 
success,  unequalled  in  our  history.  We  do 
so,  not  only  on  the  ground  of  gratitude  for 
those  imperishable  services  in  the  past,  but 
in  the  profound  conviction  that  Parnell's 
statesmanship  and  matchless  qualities  as  a 
leader  are  essential  to  the  safety  of  our 
cause. 

The  above  assurances  would  seem  to  be  as 
definite  pledges  of  support  as  could  possibly  be 
given  by  a  party  to  its  leader.  The  facts  of  the 
divorce   case  were   public  property.     They  had 

*  The  four  delegates  who  signed  this  cablegram  were 
Messrs.  T.  P.  O'Connor,  William  O'Brien,  John  Dillon,  and 
T.  Harrington,  while  Mr.  T.  D.  Sullivan  was  the  one  who 
refused  to  sign  it. 


A  LOSING  FIGHT  239 

long  been  the  subject  of  rumour,  but  had  now 
been  confirmed  by  sworn  evidence  in  court,  and 
by  the  granting  of  the  decree  by  the  Judge.  In 
spite  of  this,  the  Irish  party  had  declared  that  they 
would  stand  by  their  leader  whatever  had  hap- 
pened. 

The  matter  therefore  might  have  been  con- 
sidered at  an  end.  It  would,  of  course,  have  left 
a  slur  upon  Charley's  character.  But  such  a  slur 
would  only  have  been  of  a  passing  nature. 

It  might  have  been  thought  that  the  Irish 
party,  and  they  alone,  were  the  fitting  tribunal, 
so  far  as  poUtics  were  concerned,  to  sit  in  judg- 
ment upon  their  leader.  They  had,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  as  we  have  seen,  actually  done  so,  and 
returned  a  unanimous  verdict  of  "  Not  guilty." 
How  far  they  were  justified  in  reversing  their  de- 
cision, on  the  ground  that,  when  they  had  first 
decided  to  support  Charley,  they  had  forgotten  to 
take  into  consideration  the  effect  that  the  divorce 
would  have  in  other  quarters,  is  a  question  which 
nobody  seems  to  have  answered  very  satisfactorily. 
The  best  defence  of  those  who  ruined  my  brother, 
by  breaking  away  from  his  leadership  and  creating 
a  split  in  the  party,  is  the  plea  of  policy.  So 
far  as  that  policy  was  a  personal  one,  there  may 
have  been  some  slight,  if  shortsighted,  reason  for 
their  going  back  on  their  word  in  this  manner.  As 
a  matter  of  national  policy,  it  was  amply  dis- 
credited by  future  events. 


240      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

The  considerations  which  the  Irish  party  in 
their  first  flush  of  enthusiasm  completely  ignored 
were,  first,  the  attitude  of  the  Liberal  party,  and 
above  all  of  Mr.  Gladstone;  and,  secondly,  the 
attitude  of  the  Irish  priests.  I  think  I  am  right 
in  saying  that  at  this  time  the  Irish  party  neg- 
lected to  consider,  or  at  any  rate  minimized,  these 
two  very  important  considerations.  Charley  on 
his  part  fully  appreciated  their  value,  but  put  his 
whole  faith  in  the  loyalty  of  his  party. 

How  mistaken  both  were  events  will  show. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  GOD  FROM  THE  MACHINE 

Danger. 

At  first  it  would  seem  that  Charley's  position  was 
unaffected.  But  this,  as  I  have  said,  was  due  to 
leaving  two  important  considerations  out  of  the 
question.  Moreover,  the  Irish  mind  is  much 
quicker  at  arriving  at  decisions  than  the  English 
one,  which  is  slower  but  more  stable. 

Signs  of  opposition  to  Charley  in  England  on 
the  ground  of  the  divorce  case  became  gradually 
more  and  more  evident.  The  newspapers  and 
other  periodicals  of  both  parties,  and  especially 
the  religious  and  labour  organs,  started  the  cry 
which  became  more  general  every  day:  "  Parnell 
must  go." 

But  their  agitation  would  have  died  a  natural 
death  had  it  not  received  official  support.  The 
first  sign  that  the  Liberal  party  were  going  to  turn 
on  Charley  was  shown  at  the  meeting  at  Sheffield, 
on  November  21,  of  the  National  Liberal  Federa- 
tion. The  speeches  actually  delivered  in  public 
were  non-committal.     But  in  private  Mr.  Morley 

241  16 


242      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

and  Sir  William  Harcourt,  both  of  whom  were 
present  at  the  conference,  learned  that  the  English 
Nonconformists  were  determined,  as  usual,  to 
show  no  mercy  towards  moral  delinquency,  how- 
ever high  the  character  borne  by  the  delin- 
quent. The  Nonconformist  party  have  always 
had  a  strong  influence  in  English  politics,  and, 
of  course,  the  Liberals  would  in  any  event  be 
unable  to  stand  without  their  support.  Indeed, 
the  Irish  Nationalists  might  very  well  have  seen 
that  the  Nonconformists  would  be  certain  to 
judge  Charley  on  the  moral  issue  alone,  and  that 
their  judgment  was  certain  to  be  implacably  un- 
favourable. Mr.  Gladstone,  besides  being  in- 
fluenced by  them  from  party  motives,  was  also 
one  who  could  not  dissociate  private  morality  from 
public  usefulness.  His  decision  was  therefore 
soon  made  up. 

Mr.  Gladstone's  Letter. 

On  November  24,  1891,  he  wrote  that  letter  to 
Mr.  Morley  which  proved  to  be  the  turning-point 
of  Charley's  whole  career.  In  it  the  Liberal 
leader  unhesitatingly  threw  his  whole  weight  into 
the  scale  against  his  ally.  I  shall  content  myself 
with  quoting  a  single  sentence  from  the  long  letter, 
which  expresses  Mr.  Gladstone's  attitude  in  a 
nutshell.  After  referring  to  the  fact  that,  in  view 
of  the  opening  of  the  session  on  the  following  day, 


A  LOSING  FIGHT  243 

he  had  felt  himself  compelled  to  arrive  at  a  deci- 
sion at  once,  he  refers  to  that  decision  in  the  follow- 
ing words: 

It  was  that,  notwithstanding  the  splendid 
services  rendered  by  Mr.  Parnell  to  his 
country,  his  continuance  at  the  present 
moment  in  the  leadership  would  be  produc- 
tive of  consequences  disastrous  in  the  highest 
degree  to  the  cause  of  Ireland. 

It  was  not  so  much  the  letter  itself  which  did  the 
harm,  but  the  fact  that  it  was  communicated  to 
the  Press  before  the  Irish  party  and  Charley  him- 
self had  had  an  opportunity  of  considering.  The 
means  by  which  it  was  hurried  into  publication  on 
the  very  day  on  which  Parliament  had  assembled 
appears  to  have  been  that  it  was  given  by  Mr. 
Gladstone  to  Mr.  John  Morley,  who  passed  it  on 
to  the  Chief  Whip,  Mr.  Arnold  Morley,  who  dictated 
it  in  his  own  room  to  a  repiesentative  of  the  Press 
Association.  It  was  published  in  that  evening's 
papers,  and  many  of  the  Irish  members  actually 
in  the  House  did  not  know  of  its  existence  until 
they  saw  it  in  print. 

Earlier  in  the  day  the  Irish  party  had  met  as 
usual  to  elect  their  chairman  for  the  session. 
Amidst  many  enthusiastic  expressions  of  undying 
support,  Charley  was  unanimously  re-elected  to 
that  position. 

Then  the  rumour  spread,  becoming  more  and 


244      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

more  certain,  that  Gladstone  had  thrown  Charley 
overboard,  and  that  by  a  communication  pub- 
lished behind  his  back. 

It  was  felt  that  the  election  which  had  just  been 
held  to  decide  the  leadership  must,  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, be  a  void  one,  and  a  fresh  meeting  was 
therefore  fixed  for  the  next  day  (November  26) . 

But  in  that  short  space  of  time  the  undying 
loyalty  of  a  section  of  Charley's  supporters  had 
already  begun  to  melt  away,  once  he  was  publicly 
disowned  by  Mr.  Gladstone  and  the  Liberal  party. 
Charley's  attitude  when  he  took  the  chair  at  this 
meeting  showed  not  the  slightest  sign  of  concern. 
He  arrived  a  little  after  time,  and  directly  he 
entered  Mr.  Barry  rose  with  a  suggestion  that  it 
might  be  advisable  for  him  to  retire,  at  any  rate 
for  a  period,  from  the  leadership  of  the  party. 
His  voice  was  not  the  only  one  that  showed  that 
the  Irish  party  were  no  longer  united  in  support 
of  their  leader,  though  there  were  many  members 
who  expressed  their  adherence  to  Charley  and 
urged  him  to  fight  to  the  last.  The  meeting,  at 
which  Charley  did  not  utter  a  word,  was  finally 
adjourned  until  the  following  Monday,  December  i. 

It  is  important  to  note  that  it  was  at  this  meet- 
ing that  the  question  was  first  raised  as  to  how 
the  position  of  the  evicted  tenants  who  were  being 
supported  under  the  Plan  of  Campaign  would  be 
affected  by  the  continuance  of  Charley's  leader- 
ship.    The  fear  expressed   then   and   afterwards 


A  LOSING  FIGHT  245 

was  that  the  aUenation  of  EngHsh  Liberal  and  most 
hkely  of  American  Nationahst  sympathies  would 
make  it  impossible  to  continue  to  provide  the  funds 
to  enable  them  to  resist  the  landlords.  This  ques- 
tion of  how  far  his  continuance  in  the  chieftain- 
ship would  result  in  the  starvation  of  those  whose 
interests  he  had  ever  at  heart,  and  for  whom  he 
had  devoted  his  whole  life,  was  undoubtedly  the 
one  that  weighed  most  heavily  with  Charley. 


CHAPTER  III 
CHARLEY'S    BETRAYAL 

A  Party  Conclave. 

Charley  now  decided  that  it  was  time  for  him  to 
place  his  views  definitely  before  his  party.  He 
accordingly  invited  a  number  of  his  more  intimate 
friends  to  meet  him  at  Dr.  Fitzgerald's  rooms, 
near  Victoria  Station.  Among  those  who  arrived 
were  Messrs.  John  and  William  Redmond,  J.  J. 
O' Kelly,  Leamy,  and  Colonel  Nolan. 

Charley  at  once  announced,  pointing  to  a  pile 
of  manuscript  on  the  table  before  him,  that  he 
had  written  a  letter  to  the  Press  which  he  intended 
reading  to  them.  He  wished,  however,  to  have 
Mr.  Justin  McCarthy  present  also,  and  he  was 
sent  for.  Directly  McCarthy  arrived,  Charley 
began  to  read,  in  low  but  distinct  tones,  his  famous 
manifesto  (see  Appendix  F). 

When  Charley  had  finished  reading  the  mani- 
festo, Mr.  McCarthy  said  that  he  was  opposed  to 
it,  and  that,  as  there  was  no  likelihood  of  Charley 
altering  his  opinion,  he  would  leave.  The  others, 
however,  welcomed  Charley's  utterance,  and  re- 
iterated their  promises  of  support. 

246 


A  LOSING  FIGHT  247 

The  split  in  the  Irish  party  then  definitely  began 
with  the  signature  by  the  American  delegates 
(except  Mr.  Harrington)  and  Messrs.  Dillon, 
William  O'Brien,  and  T.  P.  O'Connor,  repudiating 
Charley's  leadership,  and  ranging  themselves  on 
the  side  of  the  Liberals  under  Mr.  Gladstone. 

A  series  of  important  conferences,  which  soon 
came  to  take  more  of  the  nature  of  battles,  were 
now  held  in  Committee  Room  15,  the  headquarters 
of  the  Nationalist  organization  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  The  Anti-Parnellites  opened  fire  point- 
blank  by  moving:  **  That  Mr.  Parnell's  tenure  of 
the  chairmanship  of  this  party  is  hereby  termi- 
nated." Charley,  however,  ruled  this  resolution 
out  of  order,  as  he  pointed  out  that  a  motion  was 
already  before  the  party  in  the  following  terms: 
**  That  a  full  meeting  of  the  party  be  held  on 
Friday  to  give  Mr.  Parnell  an  opportunity  to 
reconsider  his  position."  Colonel  Nolan,  a  keen 
supporter  of  Charley's,  then  moved:  *'  That  the 
party  should  meet  in  Dublin  and  settle  the  ques- 
tion there";  but  this  resolution  was  defeated  by 
44  votes  to  29.  During  the  course  of  this  meeting, 
at  which  no  definite  result  was  arrived  at,  Mr.  John 
Redmond  remarked:  "  When  we  are  asked  to  sell 
our  leader  to  preserve  the  English  alliance,  it 
seems  to  me  that  we  are  bound  to  inquire  what  we 
are  getting  for  the  price  we  are  paying."  Charley 
had  ready  his  comment  on  this,  and  it  was  an 
apt  one.     "  Don't  sell  me  for  nothing,"  he  said. 


248      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

"  If  you  get  my  value,  you  may  change  me  to- 
morrow." 

At  the  next  conference,  Mr.  Clancy,  an  Anti- 
Parnellite,  moved:  "  That  the  Whips  of  the  party 
be  instructed  to  obtain  from  Mr.  Gladstone,  Mr. 
John  Morley,  and  Sir  William  Harcourt,  definite 
information  on  the  vital  questions  of  the  con- 
stabulary and  the  land."  Four  delegates  were 
according^  appointed  to  wait  on  Mr.  Gladstone 
and  obtain  his  views  on  these  matters. 

Mr.  Gladstone,  however,  refused  to  be  drawn 
from  the  track  by  any  red  herring  of  Home  Rule. 
"  The  question  we  have  now  to  decide,"  he  said, 
**  is  the  leadership  of  the  Irish  party." 

The  discussions  in  Room  15,  after  becoming 
more  and  more  embittered,  resulted  in  the  with- 
drawal of  Mr.  McCarthy  at  the  head  of  a  section 
consisting  of  forty-four  members,  while  Charley 
continued  to  command  a  faithful  following  of 
twenty-six. 

The  Kilkenny  Election. 

Finding  that  there  was  a  vacancy  in  North 
Kilkenny,  Charley  determined  to  open  his  cam- 
paign against  Mr.  Gladstone  and  the  members 
who  had  seceded  from  his  own  party  by  making 
certain  that  the  candidate  returned  would  support 
him.  Sir  John  Pope  Hennessy  was  the  official 
Nationalist   candidate,  but  he  had  fallen   under 


A  LOSING  FIGHT  249 

the  influence  of  the  Anti-ParnelUtes,  and  Charley 
determined  to  oppose  him  by  Mr.  Vincent  Scully, 
in  whom  he  felt  he  could  rely  implicitly. 

Charley  was  at  this  time  in  very  bad  health 
indeed,  and  the  strain  of  his  position  was  already 
beginning  to  tell  badly  upon  him.  He  had  lost  a 
great  deal  of  the  invariable  smartness  of  dress  and 
appearance  for  which  he  was  formerly  noted. 
His  stoutness,  which  had  become  so  marked  about 
1885,  had  now  deserted  him,  and  for  the  first  time 
in  his  life  his  former  erect  carriage  was  replaced 
by  a  slight  stoop.  His  hair  was  already  beginning 
to  show  traces  of  grey  in  parts,  as  The  O'Donoghue, 
who  was  very  much  with  him  during  these  later 
years,  once  told  me;  his  eyes  had  a  wild,  defiant 
look  in  them  which  was  entirely  new.  He  did  not, 
however,  allow  his  bodily  health  to  interfere  with 
his  usual  promptitude  of  action.  Finding  that 
United  Ireland,  his  own  newspaper,  had  come 
under  the  control  of  his  enemies,  he  dismissed  the 
editor  and  appointed  Mr.  Leamy  in  his  place.  He 
next  attended  a  meeting  at  the  Rotunda,  one  of 
the  greatest  which  he  ever  addressed,  where  his 
reception  was  perhaps  the  most  enthusiastic 
which  he  had  received  during  his  whole  career. 
Then,  hearing  that  the  offices  of  his  newspaper  had 
been  occupied  by  the  seceders,  who  had  driven 
out  his  own  staff,  he  stormed  the  premises  at  the 
head  of  a  large  crowd,  and  put  his  men  once  more 
back  in  charge. 


250      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

In  spite  of  all  attempts  to  keep  the  platform 
clear,  there  was  a  gigantic  crowd  at  Kingsbridge 
Station  to  see  Charley  off  to  Cork,  whither  he  was 
bound  to  rally  his  own  constituents.  He  then 
went  on  to  Kilkenny,  where  his  terrible  alteration 
in  health  was  soon  the  subject  of  alarmed  discus- 
sion among  his  supporters.  He  was  able,  how- 
ever, both  there  and  at  Cork,  to  deliver  a  series 
of  vigorous  telling  speeches,  and  to  get  his  organiza- 
tion into  full  swing. 


The  Power  of  the  Church. 

Although  he  fought  with  incredible  energy  to  the 
very  end  of  the  contest,  Charley  realized,  long 
before  the  figures  were  announced,  that  he  would 
lose  Kilkenny.  The  reason  was  that  the  priests 
as  a  body  were  against  him,  and  he  then,  as  ever 
before,  appreciated  the  power  of  the  Catholic 
Church  in  Ireland,  especially  when  now,  for  the 
first  time,  he  came  into  open  conflict  with  it.  Of 
course,  it  was  one  thing  for  politicians  to  continue 
to  regard  him  as  Chief  of  his  party,  and  to  regard 
moral  considerations  as  being  entirely  outside 
their  scope  of  judgment.  If  the  entire  Irish  party 
had  done  so,  no  one  could  have  been  very  much 
surprised.  Indeed,  they  would  have  been  com- 
mended generally,  both  for  their  loyalty  towards 
one  who  had  led  them  so  successfully  in  the  past, 
and  for  their  patriotism  in  still  choosing  the  same 


A  LOSING  FIGHT  251 

means  to  secure  their  country's  independence. 
But  with  the  Church  it  was  a  different  matter. 
They  were  bound  to  uphold  private  morality  by 
the  articles  of  their  creed,  and  they  were  also 
forced  to  do  so  by  the  strong  pubHc  opinion  exist- 
ing among  their  flock,  the  Irish  peasantry  always 
having  been  one  of  the  most  strictly  moral  peoples 
of  the  world.  But,  as  Charley  had  already 
observed,  the  influence  of  the  priests  was  tre- 
mendous. Without  them  he  could  do  nothing, 
in  spite  of  his  great  name,  the  great  services  he 
had  rendered  to  his  country,  and  the  great  love 
the  people  bore  him.  With  them,  as  had  been  the 
case  in  the  past,  he  could  do  everything.  Their 
attitude,  however,  was  one  of  resolute  opposition. 
It  had  to  be  so,  and  there  was  no  possibility  of  its 
changing.  Still  Charley,  his  pride  prevailing  over 
his  intellect,  chose  to  continue  the  hopeless  struggle. 
Prolonged  conferences  then  took  place  at  Bou- 
logne between  Charley  and  Mr.  O'Brien  and  Mr. 
Dillon  as  to  the  chairmanship  of  the  party.  The 
seceders  had  elected  Mr.  McCarthy  to  that  posi- 
tion, but  Charley  proposed,  if  satisfactory  assur- 
ances should  be  obtained  from  Mr.  Gladstone  with 
regard  to  Home  Rule,  that  he  himself  should 
resign  the  chairmanship  of  the  party  in  favour  of 
Mr.  O'Brien  or  Mr.  Dillon.  The  negotiations, 
however,  proved  abortive,  and  Mr.  Dillon  and 
Mr.  O'Brien  were  arrested,  on  warrants  that  had 
been  enforced  some  time,  when  they  returned  to 


252      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

England,  and,  on  being  released  from  prison  about 
five  months  later,  declared  themselves  openly  to 
belong  to  the  Anti-Parnellite  party. 

He  still,  however,  attempted  to  regain  his  foot- 
ing among  the  Irish  electorate,  but  without  success. 
At  North  Sligo  and  Carlow  his  candidates  were 
beaten,  but  he  still  continued  the  fight.  His  last 
public  speech  was  at  Creggs,  on  September  27, 
1891.  He  looked  terribly  ill  then,  and  after  the 
meeting  went  to  Dublin,  where  he  stopped  for 
three  days  at  the  house  of  his  friend  Dr.  Kenny. 
He  then  went  to  London,  and  on  to  his  house  at 
Brighton,  where  he  was  compelled  to  take  to  his 
bed.  On  October  5  he  wrote  to  Sir  Henry 
Thompson,  but  his  death  occurred  on  October  6. 

How  the  Irish  nation  mourned  their  dead 
leader,  how  I  myself  received  the  sad  news  in 
America,  will  be  told  in  the  following  chapter. 
But  I  think  the  most  poignant  expression  of  grief 
in  connection  with  my  poor  brother's  death  was 
that  which  was  contained  in  a  letter  which  I 
received  from  our  mother  about  three  weeks  later. 
I  give  some  passages  of  it  as  a  fitting  close  to  this 
chapter: 

I  have  been  so  weak  I  could  not  write  to 
you.  The  cruel  blow  prostrated  me  almost 
irrevocably — left  me  all  but  dead. 

Anger  kept  me  up  enough  to  see  two  or 
three  reporters  to  tell  what  I  thought — alas  ! 
with  but  too  much  truth.     I  would  have  died 


A  LOSING  FIGHT  253 

rather  than  not  denounce  poor,  poor  Charles' 
murderers  and  called  down  vengeance  on 
them.  Gladstone  will  suffer  for  his  knavish, 
brutal  wickedness  to  his  dying  day.  The 
Roman  Catholic  organization  has  become  an 
abomination  to  man  and  to  God. 

Knowing  how  ill  he  had  been  for  years, 
instead  of  healing  his  wound,  his  griefs,  they 
had  no  mercy  on  him — they  vowed  his  death. 
God  will  render  to  them  full  measure  for 
their  murderous,  fiendish  thoughts  and  ac- 
tions. The  widow — the  mother — is  heard  in 
heaven.  Your  brother's  blood  cries  aloud 
for  vengeance. 


CHAPTER  IV 

AFTER  THE  DEATH 

The  Funeral. 

The  body  was  brought  to  Dublin  on  Sunday, 
October  ii,  and,  after  a  public  lying-in-state  in 
the  City  Hall  during  the  morning,  was  borne  to 
its  last  resting-place  in  Glasnevin  Cemetery,  ac- 
companied by  a  gigantic  concourse  of  people 
drawn  from  the  remotest  parts  of  Ireland. 

Since  then  October  6  has  always  been  a  day  in 
Dublin  set  apart  for  the  commemoration  of  the 
lost  Chief,  whose  emblem,  the  ivy  leaf,  is  worn  by 
countless  thousands.  I  give  the  text  of  the  card 
issued  at  the  first  anniversary  of  my  brother's 
death,  the  words  being  by  an  intimate  friend  and 
supporter  of  his: 

IN  MEMORY  OF  THE  CHIEF. 

Gathered  from  Aughavannagh's  rugged  side, 

Where  we  together  oft  in  friendship  came. 
Where  Lugnacuilla  rears  its  crest  of  pride, 

And  Glenmalure  enshrines  a  Nation's  fame. 
Emblem  of  soHtude,  from  his  own  hills, 

I  lay  this  wreath  where  lies  our  glorious  Chief, 
To  symbohze  the  solitude  that  fiUs 

The  Nation's  lonely  heart,  that  aches  with 
endless  grief. 

W.    J.   CORBETT. 

Spring  Farm, 

October  6,  1892. 

254 


A  LOSING  FIGHT  255 


How  I  LEARNED  THE  NeWS. 

I  was  in  Atlanta,  Georgia,  when  I  heard  the  news 
of  my  brother's  death,  which  I  refused  to  beheve. 
I  went  to  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  office  and 
asked  them  if  they  had  heard  anything  of  the  sad 
news,  but  on  their  telHng  me  that  nothing  what- 
ever had  come  over  the  cable  concerning  it  I  felt 
considerably  relieved,  and  thought  that  the  whole 
thing  must  be  simply  a  baseless  rumour.  How- 
ever, to  make  quite  certain,  I  went  round  to  see 
my  friend  Mr.  Patrick  Moran,  the  editor  of  the 
Atlanta  Constitution,  who  said  he  had  not  heard  of 
it,  but  asked  me  to  call  round  at  twelve  o'clock 
that  night,  when  he  would  know  for  certain  about 
it.  After  walking  about  restlessly  during  the 
whole  of  the  day  until  midnight,  I  returned  to  the 
newspaper  office,  where  Mr.  Moran  told  me  that  he 
had  received  confirmation  of  the  sad  news. 

I  went  back  to  my  hotel  deeply  shocked  and 
grieved,  for  Charley,  besides  being  my  brother, 
had  been  my  best  friend  from  boyhood.  I  felt 
sad  for  our  family,  especially  for  our  poor  mother, 
whose  favourite  son  he  was;  while  I  was  bitterly 
angry  with  his  political  foes,  and  above  all  with 
his  treacherous  colleagues,  for  having  ruined  and 
practically  killed  him. 

I  went  home  and  spent  a  few  days  thinking 
over  my  future  plans,  and  then  decided  to  return 
to  Ireland.     I  took  with  me  my  mother,  whom  I 


256      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

found  perfectly  broken  down  with  grief  in  New 
York.  We  set  sail  for  Europe  in  December,  1891. 
The  weather  was  so  bad  when  we  arrived  off 
Queenstown  that  we  were  unable  to  land,  having 
to  go  on  to  Liverpool,  whence  we  got  another 
steamer  back  to  Dublin.  I  left  my  mother  at 
Mr.  McDermott's,  my  brother-in-law  and  our 
family  solicitor,  while  I  hastened  to  Avondale  to 
arrange  for  the  winding  up  of  the  estate.  Every- 
where I  found  desolation  and  mourning  for  my 
late  brother.  It  gave  me  a  shock  when  I  found 
in  what  a  bad  condition  Charley's  finances  were, 
and  how  his  sister  Emily,  who  had  been  dependent 
on  him,  was  almost  starving.  When  I  got  there, 
Charley's  workmen  all  gathered  round  me  in  a 
body,  imploring  me,  with  tears  and  outstretched 
hands,  to  do  something  for  them. 

A  Desperate  Hope. 

The  sight  of  these  men  without  work  or  food 
made  me  take  a  sudden  resolve,  which  may  have 
seemed  foolish  at  the  time,  but  which  experience 
justified.  I  had  no  money  with  me,  my  funds 
being  all  invested  in  my  American  fruit  farms,  but 
I  determined  to  make  Avondale  pay,  though 
Charley  had  never  done  so. 

The  foreman  of  the  sawmills  was  a  man  named 
Pat  Bennet,  extremely  capable  at  his  work,  and  a 
most  genial  and  pleasant  fellow  to  talk  to.     After 


A  LOSING  FIGHT  257 

talking  to  him  for  some  time/and  asking  him  what 
work  it  was  possible  for  him  to  get  on  with,  he 
suddenly  said:  "Well,  Mr.  John,  if  you  will  let 
me  cut  down  an  elm-tree,  I'll  go  into  town  now 
and  try  to  get  some  orders  for  sawn  timber."  I  was 
rather  sceptical  about  Pat's  getting  sufficient  orders 
in  Rathdrum  to  pay  the  men  at  the  sawmill,  let 
alone  the  other  men  on  the  place,  but  I  said :  "  WeU, 
try  and  get  some  orders,  and  good  luck  to  you." 

When  Pat  returned  from  Rathdrum  he  brought 
with  him  orders  for  pieces  of  elm  timber  for 
making  coffins — a  good  omen,  though  it  did  not 
strike  me  at  once  as  being  so;  and  I  felt  certain 
that  in  my  place  Charley,  with  his  superstitions, 
would  have  rejected  the  order.  When  the  next 
Saturday  came  round,  Pat  came  to  me,  and,  to 
my  astonishment,  said:  "  Well,  Mr.  John,  I  have 
paid  the  sawmill  men,  and  here  is  ten  shillings 
left  over  for  your  honour."  This,  though  amusing, 
was  a  good  beginning,  and  afterwards  the  money 
began  to  flow  in. 

Out  of  that  small  beginning  grew  quite  a  thriving 
business,  in  which  I  might  still  be  engaged,  both 
pleasurably  and  profitably,  if  Charley's  debts  had 
not  forced  me  to  sell  Avondale. 

Still,  I  always  felt  a  sadness  at  being  alone  down 
there,  where  Charley  and  I  had  spent  so  many 
happy  hours  together,  and  where  I  so  often 
thought  of  him,  even  when  the  country  was  at 
its  loveliest,  with  a  pang  of  bitterness  and  regret. 

17 


CHAPTER  V 

A  VISION 

Charley's  Bedside  Visit. 

I  AM  going,  at  the  risk  of  being  laughed  at,  to 
recount  an  experience  which  befell  me  several 
years  after  my  brother's  death,  when  I  am  con- 
vinced I  was  visited  by  his  spirit. 

Throughout  his  lifetime,  when  we  happened  to 
be  together,  Charley,  if  he  wished  to  talk  to 
me  particularly,  always  walked  into  my  bedroom 
about  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  woke  me  up. 
Some  of  the  more  striking  instances  of  these  early 
visits,  all  of  which  occurred  almost  exactly  at  the 
same  hour — 2  a.m. — are  the  following : 

In  1874,  when  he  persuaded  me  to  stand  for 
County  Wicklow  in  the  place  of  himself,  he  came 
into  my  bedroom  under  circumstances  I  have 
already  described,  and  woke  me  up  exactly  at 
that  hour. 

When  he  began  to  take  an  interest  in  the  Whin- 
stone  quarry  at  Arklow,  he  woke  me  up,  once  again 
at  2  a.m.,  and  tried  to  persuade  me  to  drive  out 
with  him  and  inspect  the  site,  as  Lord  Carysfort's 
men  might  prevent  him  doing  so  in  the  daytime. 

258 


A  LOSING  FIGHT  259 

However,  as  I  had  got  a  bad  cold,  and  had  just 
returned  from  the  warm  cHmate  of  Georgia,  I 
excused  myself  and  stopped  in  bed. 

Another  time  he  came  to  my  bedroom,  once 
more  exactly  at  2  a.m.,  and  woke  me  up,  saying: 
"  John,  I  want  to  walk  over  the  mountain  to 
Aughavannagh  to  look  at  the  turf  on  Blackrock." 
On  this  occasion  I  went  with  him,  having  a  very 
enjoyable  walk  of  about  nine  miles  over  the 
hills. 

The  same  thing  occurred  frequently  during  his 
political  career,  whenever  he  experienced  difficulty 
in  arriving  at  an  important  political  decision. 

In  1897  I  was  stopping  at  Avondale,  having 
come  from  the  House  of  Commons,  of  which  I  had 
been  a  member,  of  the  Nationalist  party  under 
Mr.  John  Redmond. 

I  was  lying  in  bed  in  the  same  room  to  which 
Charley  had  come  to  see  me  on  previous  occasions. 
I  was  half  asleep  and  half  awake.  I  saw  my  brother 
Charley  sitting  at  my  bedside  with  the  collar  of  his 
great-coat  turned  up  round  his  neck,  as  he  gener- 
ally wore  it  when  he  came  to  see  me  at  that  time. 
I  noticed  by  my  watch  that  it  was  then  two 
o'clock.  For  some  reason  I  did  not  feel  strange 
to  see  him  there  and  to  hear  his  voice:  he  was 
talking  about  politics,  a  subject  which  he  very 
rarely  discussed.  I  remember  asking  him  what 
were  the  prospects  of  Unit}^  He  replied  that 
the  parties  would  unite  under  John  Redmond. 


26o      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

Then  he  got  quite  angry,  and  cried  out  that 
Harrington  was  standing  in  the  way. 

The  vision  then  vanished. 

I  did  not  understand  why  he  said  that  Har- 
rington was  standing  in  the  way,  because  I  con- 
sidered that  Mr.  Harrington  was  for  Unity,  with 
myself.  Doubtless  there  was  some  explanation 
of  this,  but  I  never  learned  it.  Naturally,  I  did 
not  sleep  again  that  night,  and  for  days  after  I  lay 
wide  awake,  waiting  for  my  brother  to  return. 
But  the  vision  never  came  back. 

If,  however,  Charley's  spirit  has  never  since 
returned  to  me,  as  I  am  certain  it  did  that  night, 
his  image  is  often  visibly  present  in  my  dreams, 
and  his  memory  is  never  absent. 


APPENDICES 


"  In  her  deepest  hour  of  sorrow,  in  her  hour  of  darkest  shame. 
Thy  country  still  will  treasure  the  glory  of  thy  name. 
In  her  greatest  hour  of  triumph,  when  her  history  shall  bear 
To  the  future  all  her  glory,  thine  shall  be  foremost  there." 

Vision  of  King  Brian. 


AN  EXPLANATION. 

In  case  the  reader  should,  as  is  often  the  way,  lay  this 
book  aside,  fearing  that  anything  in  the  nature  of  an 
appendix  must  of  necessity  contain  matter  too  hope- 
lessly dry  for  insertion  in  the  body  of  the  book,  I  hasten 
to  assure  him  that  such  is  not  the  case  in  the  present 
work. 

That  is  to  say  that,  far  from  considering  the  following 
pages  as  being  so  heavy  that  they  would  have  been 
skipped  if  I  had  introduced  them  in  order  of  date,  they 
have  been  kept  separate  because  I  feared  that  they  might 
prove  too  interesting  in  themselves,  and  so  destroy  the 
continuity  of  the  story  of  my  brother's  life. 


261 


APPENDIX  A 
CHARLEY'S  SUPERSTITIONS 

Luck  and  Ill-Luck. 

I  DID  not  notice  any  particular  instances  of  superstition 
in  Charley  during  his  childhood  and  boyhood.  But  in 
later  life  a  tendency  to  ascribe  an  omen  for  good  or  ill  to 
the  most  trivial  occurrence,  and  to  see  the  finger  of  Fate 
in  the  most  commonplace  objects,  became  very  noticeable. 
I  think  it  was  after  the  railway  accident  in  America  that 
Charley  first  began  to  develop  this  curious  trait  in  his 
character. 

One  of  his  most  remarkable  superstitions  was  his 
aversion  to  the  colour  green,  although  it  was  the  national 
colour  of  Ireland.  Accordingly,  he  never  wore  a  coat  or 
tie  that  had  the  slightest  tinge  of  green  in  its  material, 
and,  as  I  mention  elsewhere,  steadily  refused  to  wear 
the  fine  green  travelling-rug  which  was  presented  to  him.* 
He  carried  to  strange  limits  this  dislike  to  the  colour  green 
in  an^^  shape  or  form.  Once  he  wrote  home  to  one  of 
his  sisters — I  believe  Mrs.  Dickinson — who  had  told  him 
that  she  had  just  had  his  room  at  Avondale  repapered, 
saying:  "  I  hope  you  have  not  had  my  room  done  in 
green,  as,  if  so,  I  shall  never  use  it." 

Another  time  a  lady  whom  he  knew  well  called  to  see 
him  at  the  House  of  Commons.  He  came  along  the 
corridor  to  the  Lobby,  where  she  was  waiting,  and  had 
already  stretched  out    his  hand  in   welcome,  when  he 

*  See  Appendix  B. 
263 


264      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

suddenly  put  it  behind  his  back,  and  said,  with  a  mixture 
of  horror  and  disgust:  "  Excuse  my  asking,  but  what  is 
the  colour  of  the  dress  you  are  wearing  ?"  The  lady, 
who  did  not  know  Charley's  idiosyncrasy  in  that  direc- 
tion, replied,  quite  innocently:  "  Why,  Mr.  Parnell,  are 
you  colour-blind  ?  Of  course  it's  green."  Charley  re- 
plied: "  In  that  case  I  am  afraid  that  I  must  ask  you  to 
excuse  my  shaking  hands  with  you."  He  made  a  few  curt 
remarks  with  an  obviously  uneasy  manner,  and  then, 
pleading  an  excuse,  hurried  away,  leaving  the  lady  very 
much  puzzled,  and  somewhat  offended  at  his  strange 
manner,  the  reason  for  which  was  afterwards  explained 
to  her. 

The  Unlucky  Number. 

The  number  13,  of  course,  was  always  an  unlucky  one, 
in  his  opinion.  He  steadily  refused,  even  at  the  risk  of 
anno^dng  or  offending  his  host,  to  sit  down  thirteen  at 
table.  On  one  occasion  he  had  put  up  at  a  country  hotel 
during  election  time,  and  had  gone  up  to  his  room  to 
prepare  himself  for  dinner.  The  friend  who  was  travelling 
with  him,  and  who  occupied  a  room  next  to  Charley's,  was 
surprised  a  moment  or  so  later  to  hear  a  knock  on  his 
door,  and  to  fmd,  when  he  opened  it,  Charley  standing 
in  the  passage  with  his  bag,  looking  very  much  upset. 
The  friend  asked  what  was  the  matter,  and  he  replied  by 
pointing  to  the  number  on  his  door,  which  was  13,  and 
remarking:  "  What  a  room  to  give  me  !  I  suppose  the 
landlord  is  a  Tory,  and  has  done  this  on  purpose."  The 
friend  insisted  on  exchanging  rooms,  although  Charley 
declared  that  if  No.  13  was  slept  in  they  would  lose  the 
election.  The  election,  however,  was  won,  but  two  little 
incidents  which  occurred  confirmed  Charley  in  his  opinion 
as  to  the  ill-luck  attached  to  the  number  13.  His  friend, 
on  trying  to  open  the  window  in  the  ill-fated  room,  let  it 
fall  heavily  on  his  hand,  and,  being  unable  to  extricate  it. 


APPENDICES  265 

had  to  cry  out  for  help.  Charley  rushed  in  and  lifted 
the  window,  advising  his  friend  very  strongly  to  take 
warning  by  this  preliminary  mishap,  and  leave  the  room 
at  once.  The  friend  declined,  and  at  lunch  what  served 
as  another  manifestation  occurred.  The  friend,  in  trying 
to  open  a  bottle  of  soda-water  with  his  bad  hand,  let  the 
cork  jump  out  and  hit  him  full  in  the  eye.  This  Charley 
considered  quite  decided  the  fate  of  the  elections,  and  he 
could  hardly  be  persuaded  to  believe  that  the  figures  were 
correct  when  the  result  was  announced. 

Funerals  always  caused  him  intense  dread,  and  he 
never  could  be  persuaded  to  attend  one,  even  when  the 
deceased  happened  to  be  one  of  his  most  intimate  friends. 
He  caused  on  one  occasion  a  thrill  through  Ireland  by  a 
remark  with  regard  to  a  funeral,  the  real  meaning  of  which 
was,  I  think,  generally  misinterpreted.     It  was  during 
the  desperate  fight  for  Kilkenny  in  1890,  when  his  own 
candidate  was  opposed  by  Mr.  Pope  Hennessy.     Charley 
was  in  the  midst  of  addressing  a  meeting,  when  a  space 
was  made  in  the  ranks  of  the  crowd  to  allow  a  funeral 
cortege  to  pass.     Stopping  short  in  his  speech,  Charley 
pointed  his  finger  at  the  hearse,  and  made  the  extra- 
ordinary remark,  which  was  taken  in  very  bad  part,  even 
by  his  own  supporters,  in  many  parts  of  Ireland:  "  There 
goes  the  corpse  of  Pope  Hennessy."     I  think  what  he 
really  meant  was  that  the  fact  of  the  funeral  passing 
while  he  was  delivering  his  speech  was  a  bad  omen  for 
his  opponents,   towards  whom,  or   towards  the  actual 
corpse  itself,  he  intended  no  disrespect. 

A  somewhat  similar  superstition  was  shown  during  his 
illness  in  1882,  when  he  and  Mr.  Healy  were  working  at 
the  draft  constitution  of  the  National  League  in  October, 
1882.  My  brother  was  then  in  bad  health,  and  was  lying 
in  bed  while  Mr.  Healy  was  writing  at  a  table  by  the 
light  of  four  candles.  Mr.  Healy  relates  that  after  writing 
for  several  hours  one  of  the  candles  went  out,     Almost 


266      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

immediately  Charley  leaned  out  of  bed  and  blew  out  one 
of  the  remaining  candles,  crying  as  he  did  so:  "  Don't  you 
know  that  there  is  nothing  more  unlucky  than  to  have 
three  candles  burning  ?  You  would  have  found  that  your 
constitution  would  not  have  proved  very  successful." 
The  superstition  as  to  the  three  candles  is,  however,  a 
very  general  one  in  Europe,  and  in  Ireland  it  is  generally 
associated  with  the  three  candles  which  are  burned  at 
wakes. 

Ill-Omened  October. 

With  regard  to  October,  he  always  regarded  that  as  an 
unlucky  month,  and  began  to  show  signs  of  uneasiness 
when  it  approached,  often  remarking :  "  Something  is  sure 
to  happen  in  October." 

His  superstition,  to  a  certain  extent,  was  borne  out  by 
facts,  many  of  the  important  crises  of  his  life,  both  of  a 
favourable  and  unfavourable  nature,  occurring  in  October. 
For  instance,  his  election  as  President  of  the  Land  League 
took  place  in  October,  1879.  In  October,  1880,  the 
Government  instituted  the  State  prosecutions  which 
were  due  to  the  agrarian  outrages.  In  October,  1881, 
he  was  arrested,  and  the  date  was  doubly  ominous,  for 
it  was  the  13th  of  October.  In  October,  1886,  after  the 
rejection  of  the  Home  Rule  Bill,  he  became  critically  ill, 
and  for  a  time  lay  at  the  point  of  death.  It  was  at  the 
same  time  that  the  Plan  of  Campaign  was  published 
without  his  consent,  considerably  obstructing  his  policy. 
Finally,  it  was  in  October,  1891,  that  he  died  at  Brighton. 

Charley  always  had  a  great  dread  of  the  bad  results 
that  would  follow  the  falling  of  an  object  (such  as  a 
picture  or  ornament)  without  any  obvious  cause.  He 
was  seriously  upset  on  one  occasion  by  a  statue  falling 
close  beside  him  in  a  country  chapel  where  he  happened 
to  be  standing  listening  to  the  priest.  Spiritualism  and 
palmistry,  however,  he  always  regarded  with  great  con- 


APPENDICES  267 

tempt,  and  laughed  at  Fanny  and  myself  for  going  round 
to  have  our  fortunes  told.  On  the  other  hand,  I  do  not 
share  his  superstition  as  to  the  figure  13.  For  one  thing, 
my  marriage,  which  has  been  a  most  happy  one,  took 
place  on  the  13th  of  the  month,  in  spite  of  the  advice 
of  friends  to  choose  a  more  propitious  date,  and  I  remem- 
ber winning  an  important  chess  tournament  when  seated 
at  table  No.  13.  I  distinctly  remember,  however,  our 
mother  keenly  inspecting  the  street-cars  in  New  York 
to  make  quite  certain  that  she  was  not  getting  on  a 
No.  13. 

Although  these  superstitions  may  seem  trivial,  and 
even  ridiculous,  they  certainly  had  a  great  influence  on 
Charley's  actions,  and  sometimes  even  decided  him  at  a 
critical  turning-point  in  his  affairs. 


APPENDIX  B 

CHARLEY'S  INFLUENCE  IN  AMERICA 

The  Emigrants. 

At  the  time  of  Charley's  visit  to  America  in  1880,  he  found 
a  large  number  of  newly-emigrated  Irish  who  had  been 
driven  from  their  own  country  during  the  famine  years. 
They  were  mostly  to  be  found  in  the  Northern  States. 
The  Land  League  did  not  arouse  immediate  enthusiasm 
in  America,  as  the  people  over  there  said:  "  If  the  Irish 
complain,  why  don't  they  come  over  here  where  there  is 
plenty  of  land  for  them  ?"  Another  section  of  the  native- 
born  Americans  believed  that,  no  matter  what  was  done 
for  the  relief  of  the  famine  sufferers,  things  would  be  as 
bad  again  in  a  few  years'  time.  Charley's  tour,  however, 
did  a  great  deal  to  rouse  the  Americans  from  their  apathy. 
Branches  of  the  Land  League  were  opened  all  over  the 
country.  As  I  have  already  mentioned,  Mr.  Patrick 
Moran,  the  night  editor  of  the  Atlanta  Constitution,  asked 
me  to  assist  him  in  the  opening  of  a  branch  at  Atlanta. 
I  spoke  at  the  inaugural  meeting,  which  was  very  suc- 
cessful. A  few  days  later  the  President  of  the  Irish 
Society  wrote  to  me  asking  me  to  come  down  to  Savannah, 
Georgia,  to  organize  the  Land  League  there.  Mr.  Doyle, 
one  of  the  most  prominent  Irishmen  in  the  city,  presided 
at  the  open-air  meeting,  and  I  was  called  upon  to  speak, 
but  deferred  doing  so  until  the  massed  meeting  held  in 
the  opera-house,  which  proved  to  be  a  large  and  enthu- 
siastic one.     Next  day  I  went  to  see  the  Irish  Rifle  Team 

268 


APPENDICES  269 

doing  some  excellent  practice  on  their  grounds  near 
Savannah. 

Then  I  went  to  New  York,  and  attended  a  great  many 
meetings  there,  including  several  at  which  Mr.  T.  P. 
O'Connor  and  Mr.  Healy  were  present.  It  was  at  one 
of  these  that  my  mother  delivered  her  first  public  speech* 
which  was  very  much  to  the  point,  and  was  very  well 
received.  Besides  attending  meetings  and  speaking  at 
them,  I  was  also  present  at  several  Irish  language  gather- 
ings. My  mother  and  Miss  Ford  showed  great  energy  in 
organizing  branches  of  the  Ladies'  League,  travelling 
incessantly  up  and  down  the  country. 

By  then  Charley's  name  and  fame  had  spread  through- 
out the  States,  and  at  the  hotels  and  on  the  railroads  my 
mother  and  myself  were  constantly  asked  whether  we 
were  related  to  the  great  Irish  agitator. 


A  Negro  Parnell. 

Some  time  later  I  was  asked  by  the  postmaster  at 
West  Point,  where  I  lived,  if  I  would  come  with  him  to  a 
negro  meeting.  Although  it  was  not  the  custom  for  whites 
to  attend  the  meetings  of  coloured  persons,  we  went  round, 
and  became  very  interested  in  the  speeches.  I  remember 
one  negro  concluding  his  speech  by  saying,  "  I  wish  we 
poor  black  folk  had  a  black  Parnell,"  a  remark  which  they 
all  cheered.  This  was  some  considerable  time  after  my 
brother's  visit  in  1880,  but  it  showed,  as  I  found  every- 
where, how  his  memory  was  an  endvuing  one  among  all 
those  interested  in  the  cause  of  freedom.  One  night,  when 
I  was  lodging  in  Atlanta,  I  was  coming  away  at  a  rather 
late  hour  from  the  chess  club,  and  had  to  walk  through 
one  of  the  dangerous  parts  of  the  city  where  there  had 
recently  been  several  murders  and  robberies.  I  was  just 
passing  out  of  the  shadows  of  a  railway  bridge,  when  I 
heard  rapid    footsteps  behind  me.     Thinking  it  was  a 


270      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

robber,  I  turned  round  sharply,  but  found  it  was  a  negro 
who  knew  me,  and  wished  to  speak  to  me.  He  cried  out 
directly  he  got  within  speaking  distance:  "  Boss,  how  is 
that  terrible  brother  of  yours  ?  He  is  a  great  man.  I 
saw  him  at  your  place  when  I  was  a  little  coon.  I  wish 
we  had  one  like  him  here  in  the  States." 

Even  when  I  was  crossing  to  Ireland  as  late  as  1889, 
I  found  the  conversation  at  meals  almost  always  drifting 
round  to  my  brother.  On  one  occasion,  when  several 
people  opposite  me  were  discussing  Charley's  career,  a 
gentleman  who  knew  me  by  sight  leant  over  and  whis- 
pered to  them,  and  I  just  overheard  the  remark:  "  Be 
careful  what  you  are  saying ;  that  man  sitting  there  is  the 
great  man's  brother." 

Charley,  in  fact,  during  the  height  of  his  career  became 
a  sort  of  national  hero  in  America,  and  his  influence  on 
the  Irish  population  over  there  was  felt  throughout  his 
life.  His  character  especially  appealed  to  the  American 
idea,  and  the  fact  that  he  was  essentially  a  fighter,  and 
above  all  a  successful  one,  also  gained  him  their  admiration. 

I  was  spending  a  good  deal  of  time  during  these  days  in 
America,  where  I  was  attending  to  my  own  fruit-farming 
business  in  Atlanta,  Georgia,  though,  of  course,  I  was  in 
constant  communication  with  my  brother,  and  followed 
his  career  in  the  newspapers.  My  experiences  were  many 
and  varied,  and  the  following  is  a  typical  instance,  and 
will  give  some  idea  of  the  conditions  of  life  in  the  wildest 
parts  of  America  at  that  time,  and  how  even  among  the 
most  desperate  and  lawless  characters  the  name  of  my 
brother  served  me  as  a  passport. 

A  Trip  to  the  Mountains. 

A  number  of  my  friends  persuaded  me  to  go  with  them 
for  a  trip  to  the  mountains  of  North  Georgia,  which  were 
then  a  very  inaccessible  portion  of  the  State,  inhabited 


APPENDICES  271 

by  a  lawless  body  of  men  who  lived  principally  by  trading 
in  corn  and  honey,  and — what  was  far  more  profitable — 
illicit  whisky.  However,  no  revenue  officer  dared  to  ven- 
ture into  these  mountain  fastnesses  and  seize  the  stills 
without  running  a  very  great  danger  of  being  shot. 

With  the  exception  of  the  captain  of  the  expedition  and 
myself,  our  party  consisted  of  hardy  young  men,  only 
too  glad  for  an  adventure  with  the  spice  of  danger.  We 
brought  with  us,  not  only  our  guns,  but  plenty  of  fishing 
rods  and  tackle,  as  the  place  for  which  we  were  bound 
was  the  only  part  of  Georgia  where  the  real  speckled  trout 
could  be  obtained.  I  do  not  consider,  however,  that  they 
were  at  all  like  our  own  trout,  which  I  used  so  often  to 
catch  round  Avondale  and  Aughavannagh.  They  had 
yellow  flesh,  and  would  not  take  the  fly  as  bait,  but  only 
a  form  of  chrysalis  that  is  found  under  the  rocks. 

We  went  by  train  from  Atlanta  to  a  place  called 
Marietta,  from  which  we  took  an  ox-waggon  to  carry  our 
things  to  the  mountains,  following  ourselves  in  a  wagon- 
ette. We  had  to  go  for  about  thirty  miles  through  a  wild, 
uninhabited  country,  and  had  to  cross  several  rivers  at 
considerable  risk.  Before  we  left  civilization  completely, 
on  account  of  the  rough  "  Moonshiners  "  living  in  the 
mountains,  who  were  very  chary  of  allowing  strangers  to 
enter  their  country,  we  had  to  get  a  letter  from  a  local 
storekeeper  to  one  of  the  more  friendly  .mountaineers. 
The  storekeeper,  who  knew  I  was  a  brother  of  the  "  Irish 
King,"  which  was  the  name  by  which  they  knew  Charley 
in  those  wild  parts,  readily  consented ;  and  as  he  did  a  big 
trade  with  the  mountaineers  from  his  village,  which  was 
the  nearest  point  on  the  railway  to  them,  his  influence 
stood  us  in  very  good  stead. 

WTien  we  arrived,  we  found  that  the  man  to  whom  we 
had  been  recommended  lived  close  to  the  place  where  we 
intended  camping  out,  and  it  was  arranged  that  he  should 
come  with  us  to  the  camping-ground  to  introduce  us  to 


272      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

the  "  Moonshiners."  At  the  time  when  we  got  to  his 
house  it  was  dark,  and  the  family  had  all  gone  to  bed,  and 
we  had  to  shout  ourselves  hoarse  before  we  could  get 
anyone  to  hear.  Then  the  head  of  the  family  came  out 
to  the  gate,  dressed  simply  in  his  shirt,  which,  however, 
was  quite  sufficient  garb  for  that  hot  weather  and  those 
uncritical  regions.  We  presented  our  letter  and  asked 
him  if  we  could  put  up  for  the  night,  as  it  was  so  late- 
He  said  that  we  could,  and  provided  us  with  a  really  nice 
hot  supper,  which  we  were  very  glad  of,  as  we  were 
terribly  hungry,  and  gave  us  some  of  the  finest  honey  that 
I  have  ever  tasted.  I  don't  know,  however,  whether  the 
young  ladies  of  the  family,  who  had  to  get  up  out  of  their 
beds  to  prepare  our  supper,  quite  welcomed  our  arrival. 


Primitive  Sleeping  Conditions. 

After  supper  we  were  allotted  our  beds.  The  head  of 
the  family  said  that  he  had  only  one  room,  so  that  the 
captain  and  I,  being,  as  he  said,  the  steady  ones  of  the 
party,  would  have  to  sleep  in  the  same  room  as  himself 
and  the  rest  of  the  family,  while  the  young  fellows  would 
have  to  sleep  together  in  the  garret.  The  captain  and  I 
were  given  one  bed,  while  the  father  and  mother  slept  in 
another,  and,  to  our  astonishment,  the  two  young  ladies 
slipped  into  their  own  bed,  where  they  looked  very  inno- 
cent and  comfortable.  We  were  very  tired,  and  dropped 
straight  off  to  sleep,  and  the  next  morning  when  we  woke 
the  two  young  ladies  had  already  been  up  for  some  time 
preparing  breakfast.  After  a  good  wash  in  sparkling 
mountain  water,  we  sat  down  to  a  delicious  breakfast  of 
hominy,  rice,  fried  chicken,  hot  biscuits,  and  honey. 
No  one  need  be  afraid  of  starving  in  those  mountains,  as 
there  are  plenty  of  both  chickens  and  bees,  the  latter 
making  honey  all  the  year  round. 

After  breakfast  we  said  good-bye  to  the  ladies  of  the 


APPENDICES  273 

family,  and  set  off  on  foot  with  our  ox-team  to  the 
camping-ground  with  our  host,  who  was  to  introduce  us 
to  the  mountaineers.  After  about  two  hours'  walk  we 
arrived  at  the  camping-ground,  which  was  in  a  beautiful 
valley  close  beside  a  stream  which  was  full  of  speckled 
trout. 

"  The  Moonshiners." 

Once  we  got  there,  we  were  surrounded  by  a  very  rough 
crowd,  all  armed  with  guns  and  revolvers,  whose  first 
business  was  to  find  out  whether  we  were  revenue  officers. 
Our  guide  soon  satisfied  them  that  we  were  only  travelling 
for  pleasure,  and  told  them  that  I  was  a  brother  of  the 
"  Irish  King  "  of  whom  they  had  heard  so  much.  This 
resulted  in  my  being  subjected  to  a  good  deal  of  close 
scrutiny,  though  of  a  very  friendly,  and  even  deferential, 
nature. 

We  fixed  up  our  tent,  and  slung  up  hammocks  between 
different  trees,  though  I  preferred  to  sleep  on  a  good 
Irish  rug  which  had  been  presented  to  Charley,  but  which 
he  would  never  use  because  its  colour  happened  to  be 
green.  The  mountaineers  gathered  round  us  all  night, 
and  seemed  very  sociable,  jolly  fellows,  in  spite  of  their 
rough  appearance.  After  buying  some  mountain  whisky 
from  them  and  wishing  them  all  good-night,  we  went  to 
sleep,  though  not  very  easily.  We  had  -asked  some  of 
the  mountaineers  to  come  round  in  the  morning  and  show 
us  good  places  in  which  to  shoot  and  fish,  which  they 
readily  promised  to  do.  The  breakfast  next  morning 
for  the  lot  of  us  had  to  be  cooked  by  the  single  negro  we 
had  brought  with  us.  In  order  to  make  a  good  blaze,  he 
lighted  some  twigs  under  a  big  log,  and  was  surprised  a 
little  later  to  see  a  large  snake  glide  out  from  underneath 
the  log.  However,  he  promptly  knocked  it  on  the  head 
and  killed  it. 

Getting  a  mountaineer  as  a  guide,  I  took  my  rod  and 

18 


274       CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

went  fishing  while  the  others  went  in  search  of  game. 
We  all  had  good  sport,  and  soon  made  some  very  good 
friends  among  the  illicit  distillers.  One  day  an  old  man 
who  had  been  right  through  the  war  in  the  South  came 
up  to  me,  and  said  that  he  would  take  me  up  the  moun- 
tains and  show  me  how  to  catch  the  trout,  as  he  knew  their 
best  places,  and  wished  to  hear  from  my  lips  all  I  could 
tell  him  about  the  "  Irish  King."  While  I  was  fishing,  I 
gave  him  a  full  account  of  Charley's  fight  for  the  poor 
starving  peasants  of  Ireland  against  the  landlords  and  the 
English  Government,  and  explained  how  Charley  wished 
to  enable  the  people  to  get  the  land  for  themselves  and 
obtain  Home  Rule.  He  asked  me  several  questions,  and, 
in  order  to  explain  Charley's  policy,  I  said:  "  What  he 
has  been  trying  to  do  is  to  provide  land  for  all,  just  like 
you  and  your  people  have  in  these  mountains."  He 
seemed  greatly  impressed,  but  could  not  understand  how 
there  could  be  a  country  where  there  was  not  land  for  all 
who  wished  to  make  a  living  out  of  it. 

Lost  in  the  Wilderness. 

I  set  to  work  fishing  in  the  river,  and  caught  some  fine 
trout ;  but  when  I  had  finished,  and  turned  round  to  look 
for  my  guide,  I  found  that  he  had  disappeared.  I  waded 
across  the  river,  and  then  started  to  make  my  way  back 
to  the  tent,  as  it  was  beginning  to  grow  dark.  I  did  not 
know  my  way  well, but  thought  I  was  in  the  right  direction. 
After  walking  for  some  considerable  way,  I  got  tangled 
up  in  the  huge  laurel  swamps  which  were  the  favourite 
feeding-ground  of  the  bees.  The  swamp  where  I  found 
myself  was  not  a  very  pleasant  place  to  be  in  alone,  as 
there  were  no  end  of  large  snakes  coiled  up  on  the 
branches  of  the  laurel-tree,  threatening  to  drop  down  on 
my  head  as  I  passed,  crawling  under  the  bushes;  and  as 
I  also  smelt  the  odour  of  bears,  I  thought  it  best  to  beat 


APPENDICES  275 

a  hasty  retreat.  I  crossed  the  river,  and  eventually  found 
my  way  back  to  the  tent,  where  I  found  the  old  man  whom 
I  had  missed  anxiously  waiting  for  my  return. 

That  night  the  "  Moonshiners  "  had  quite  a  party, 
gathering  around  our  camp-fire,  singing,  dancing,  and 
telling  stories  of  their  adventures  with  the  revenue 
officers. 

Next  day  we  went  up  the  mountain  river  with  about  a 
dozen  "  Moonshiners  "  to  catch  the  trout  by  means  of 
nets.  The  method  we  adopted  was  to  walk  along  the 
river-bank,  stirring  the  mud  with  our  feet,  so  that  the 
trout,  who  could  not  see  where  they  were  going,  ran 
right  into  the  nets. 

Our  captain  had  brought  up  some  whisky  for  the 
"  Moonshiners,"  with  rather  disastrous  results  for  them; 
for,  hearing  a  little  later  some  desperate  yells,  I  found 
them  all  floundering  about  up  to  their  necks  in  a  deep 
pool.  One  man  ran  out  of  the  pool  with  a  whisky  bottle 
in  his  hand,  which  he  tried  to  persuade  me  to  take.  I 
attempted  to  get  rid  of  him,  but,  as  he  insisted  on  clinging 
to  me,  I  said  I  was  going  to  cross  the  river.  He  told  me 
that  the  best  way  to  get  across  was  by  means  of  a  tree 
that  was  hanging  over  the  river.  It  looked  a  very  risky 
job  even  for  a  perfectly  sober  man,  and  he  was  hardly 
able  to  keep  on  his  feet.  However,  he  pressed  me  so  much 
that  I  agreed  to  go  across.  Once  he  got  to  the  tree  he 
seemed  to  recover  his  balance  perfectly,  and  led  me  over 
to  the  other  side  in  grand  style ;  but  once  he  got  on  land 
again  he  collapsed  hopelessly,  whisky  bottle  and  all.  I 
stopped  with  him  for  an  hour,  but  as  he  was  still  in  a 
hopeless  condition,  and  the  rain  was  beginning  to  come 
on,  I  left  him  to  sleep  off  his  orgy.  That  night  we  did 
not  have  a  chance  of  sleeping  a  wink,  as  the  "  Moon- 
shiners "  gathered  round  our  camp-fire,  and  kept  dancing 
and  singing  all  night  long.  The  next  morning  we  packed 
up  our  things  and  bade  farewell  to  the  "  Moonshiners," 


276      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

who  were  very  sorry  to  part  from  us.  On  our  way  back 
we  called  at  the  storekeeper's  house,  and  were  once  more 
warmly  welcomed.  I  gave  him  my  fishing-rod  as  a 
parting  gift,  and  he  was  delighted,  saying  that  he  would 
cherish  it  greatly,  in  memory  of  the  '•'  Irish  King's " 
brother,  and  would  hand  it  down  to  his  heirs  to  be  kept 
by  them  in  the  family. 

We  got  safely  back  to  Atlanta  after  our  interesting 
little  trip  to  the  mountains,  and  I  returned  to  my  fruit- 
farming. 


APPENDIX  C 
AVONDALE  INDUSTRIES 

A  Trip  Home. 

Towards  the  end  of  autumn,  1885,  I  was  in  New  York 
with  our  mother,  and  she  suggested  that  we  should  take 
a  trip  to  Ireland  and  see  Charley.  When  I  arrived  in 
Dublin,  the  city  looked  very  desolate,  and  the  lack  of 
sunshine  made  me  long  to  be  back  in  my  Southern  climate 
again.  We  found  on  our  arrival  that  all  our  family  had 
left  the  city,  except  our  solicitor,  Mr.  McDermott,  from 
whom  I  discovered  that  Charley  was  at  Morrisson's 
hotel,  and  Emily  down  at  Avondale. 

When  I  went  round  to  Morrisson's,  about  noon  the 
next  day,  Charley  was  still  in  bed,  and  I  had  to  send  the 
porter  up  to  him  to  wake  him.  When  he  came  down  half 
an  hour  later,  he  seemed  delighted  to  see  me,  and  said  that 
I  had  hardly  changed  since  our  last  meeting.  On  my 
part,  however,  I  found  that  he  had  grown  very  stout. 
We  chatted  about  family  matters  for  some  time,  and  then 
went  in  to  breakfast,  where  we  were  joined  by  Mr.  T.  P. 
O'Connor.  We  all  had  chops,  tea,  and  toast,  according 
to  our  usual  Avondale  menu.  Charley  asked  me  if  I 
would  go  in  to  Parliament,  but  I  said  I  would  not,  because 
I  was  not  a  good  speaker.  He  said:  "  We  have  plenty 
of  speakers,  and  we  don't  want  them."  I  said,  however, 
that  I  was  too  busy  with  my  fruit  in  America.  We  then 
went  into  the  smoking-room,  where  we  met  Mr.  J.  O' Kelly, 
with  whom  Charley  began  talking  about  the  stone-works 

277 


278      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

at  Avondale.  I  went  away  then,  after  arranging  to  meet 
Charley  by  the  six  o'clock  train  at  Harcourt  Street  that 
evening. 

On  our  way  down  to  Avondale  he  pointed  out  to  me 
the  Wicklow  Chemical  Manure  Works,  because  they  got 
their  phosphates  from  Georgia  and  South  Carolina.  When 
we  arrived  at  Rathdrum,  Charley's  coachman,  Jack 
Gaffney,  and  his  horse,  Home  Rule,  were  waiting  for  him. 
Emily  met  us  at  the  door  of  Avondale,  and  welcomed  me 
very  warmly.  I  was  glad  after  dinner  to  find  myself 
comfortably  installed  once  more  in  the  cosy  library  of 
Avondale  in  front  of  a  blazing  wood  fire.  Charley  got 
out  his  engineering  books  and  his  compass  and  rule,  and 
began  measuring  some  of  the  plans  of  his  buildings.  I 
found  that  since  my  visit  to  Alabama  in  1871  he  had 
already  completed  the  sawmills  which  he  was  then 
projecting,  and  was  now  engaged  on  his  new  cattle-shed. 

Immediately  after  breakfast  next  morning  he  said  to 
me:  "  John,  come  and  take  a  walk  with  me;  I  am  going 
down  to  the  new  sawmill  under  Kingston,  which  you  have 
never  seen."  First  of  all  we  went  doM-n  towards  the 
river,  where  he  had  some  young  cattle  grazing.  He  met 
Henry  Gaffney,  his  herd,  and  had  a  long  consultation 
with  him  about  his  cattle.  After  that  we  walked  down 
along  the  road  past  the  new  tea-house  which  he  had  built 
as  a  residence  for  Mr.  Michael  Merna,  his  mill -manager. 
When  we  got  near  the  sawmill  we  inspected  the  mine- 
shaft,  where  four  or  five  men  were  trying  to  find  the  vein 
of  sulphur  and  copper  which  was  lost  by  the  Conoree 
Copper  Company  some  years  before ;  but,  on  account  of 
finding  part  of  the  copper  vein  when  the  railway  company 
were  making  the  bridge  over  the  Avon  River,  Charley 
decided  to  sink  a  shaft  opposite  it,  though  up  to  that 
time  neither  the  Conoree  Copper  Company  on  their  side 
of  the  river,  nor  Charley  on  his  side,  had  found  it.  It  was 
supposed  that  the  vein  had  run  with  the  river,  and  had 


APPENDICES  279 

been  washed  away,  as  there  was  a  fault  in  the  railway 
cutting  close  to  the  spot. 

Charley  and  I  often  inspected  that  fault  to  see  which 
way  it  ran,  but  never  could  come  to  any  definite  decision 
as  to  its  direction. 

The  Sawmill. 

We  then  went  on  to  the  new  sawmill,  a  very  line  wood 
and  iron  structure,  the  roof  of  which  was  modelled  on  the 
Warrior  River  bridge  which  we  had  inspected  in  1871. 
Charley  evidently  took  a  great  deal  of  interest  in  this 
mill,  as  he  worked  in  it  himself  along  with  the  men, 
and,  I  was  told,  planed  harder  than  anyone  there.  He 
constructed  the  waterway  and  race-lock  and  dam  in  the 
river,  by  which  the  mill  was  run  with  the  turbine  wheel 
which  he  had  bought  in  America.  After  spending  a 
couple  of  hours  with  great  interest  at  the  sawmill,  we 
went  back  to  Avondale,  where  we  had  lunch  together. 
We  went  to  see  the  cattle-shed  which  he  was  building, 
and  which  was  finished  so  far  as  the  walls  were  concerned. 
We  then  went  on  to  his  original  small  sawmill,  where  he 
was  making  beech  paving  sets  for  the  Corporation  of 
Dublin. 

He  had  a  lot  of  workmen  engaged  on  various  tasks  in 
different  portions  of  the  estate.  Fully  twenty-five  were 
occupied  in  the  sawmills  and  timber  business,  and  there 
were  a  lot  of  farm  hands,  stable  men  and  boys,  not  count- 
ing the  household.  After  dinner  Charley  again  busied 
himself  with  the  plans  of  his  new  cattle-shed,  and  at  about 
ten  o'clock  Emily,  her  niece  Delia,  and  myself,  went  to 
bed,  leaving  Charley  to  sit  up  until  goodness  knows  what 
hour.  Charley  went  off  to  Dublin  for  a  couple  of  days, 
leaving  me  to  fish  for  trout,  which  I  did  with  considerable 
success.  The  day  after  Charley  returned  from  Dublin, 
he  said  to  me:  "  John,  come  along  with  me  to  see  some  of 
the  quarries  which  I  am  working  to  try  and  get  sets 


28o      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

made  for  street  paving  in  Dublin."  The  first  quarry  we 
went  to  was  on  the  other  side  of  the  Avonbeg  River,  and 
Mr.  Feeney,  the  owner  of  the  mill  near-by,  brought  out 
some  planks,  which  he  placed  upon  the  rocks  to  enable 
us  to  get  across  the  river.  There  were  at  least  twenty 
men  working  at  the  quarry,  hauling  out  stones  with  a 
great  windlass.  He  said  he  was  going  to  have  the  stones 
carted  all  away  from  the  quarry  to  Rathdrum,  the  nearest 
railway-station.  However,  I  heard,  on  my  return  from 
America  next  year,  that  the  stone  had  not  proved  suit- 
able for  set-making,  being  too  brittle.  While  standing  at 
the  quarry,  Charley  noticed  that  the  men  were  cutting 
too  much  stone  under  the  bank  where  the  windlass  was 
standing.  He  had  hardly  called  them  to  get  out  of 
danger  when  down  came  the  windlass,  and  would  have 
killed  a  couple  of  men  if  he  had  not  uttered  his  warning  in 
time.  On  the  way  home  to  Avondale  we  went  through 
the  wood  at  the  Meeting  of  the  Waters.  We  stopped  at 
another  quarry  in  Mount  Avon  Wood,  but  this  was  not 
working  at  the  time. 

Charley  during  these  years  was  looking  for  a  suitable 
stone-quarry  to  make  sets  for  the  Dublin  Corporation,  as 
he  had  a  contract  with  them  at  the  time,  thus  disturbing 
the  set-making  monopoly  which  Wales  had  hitherto  held 
of  the  Irish  trade.  He  knew  that  if  he  could  find  a 
suitable  stone,  such  as  whinstone,  a  volcanic  or  basaltic 
stone,  he  could  start  a  large  business  in  making  sets,  and 
thus  create  a  new  Irish  industry  at  the  expense  of  England. 
He  often  told  me  that  Ireland  had  hundreds  of  industries 
lying  idle  for  the  want  of  working,  and  he  was  particularly 
anxious  to  have  them  opened  up.  He  also  believed  that 
Ireland  was  full  of  mineral  wealth  hidden  beneath  her  soil. 


APPENDICES  281 


Home  Rule. 


One  day,  while  we  were  standing  round  the  library 
fire,  I  asked  him  whether  we  should  have  Home  Rule 
soon.  He  immediately  said,  with  emphasis:  "  We  will 
have  Home  Rule  next  year,  and  will  have  Dublin  Castle 
for  our  Parliament  House."  I  told  him  that,  in  my 
opinion,  we  were  not  near  Home  Rule  yet,  as  the  people 
were  not  educated  up  to  it ;  but  Dublin  Castle  would  be 
better  than  the  old  Bank,  as  there  would  be  more  room. 

He  said:  "  You  will  see  that  we  will  be  there  next 
year."  I  may  mention  that  he  always  had  a  great  am- 
bition to  have  the  new  Irish  Parliament,  which  he  firmly 
believed  he  would  live  to  see,  installed  in  Dublin  Castle. 

Soon  after  this  Charley  left  Avondale  for  Brighton,  as 
he  said  he  could  not  stand  the  east  wind.  I  remained 
there,  however,  for  some  time,  shooting  and  fishing,  and 
finally  went  back  to  America  in  October. 

My  Visit  in  1886. 

I  returned  to  Avondale  in  the  following  year  (1886),  and 
on  arrival  went  shooting  with  Charley,  Mr.  Campbell, 
his  Secretary,  and  Mr.  Corbett,  his  great  sporting  chum. 
I  found  Charley  looking  better  than  I  had  expected,  as 
he  had  been  ill  in  the  meantime,  though  he  was  still  very 
stout. 

When  Charley  returned  to  Avondale,  there  was  a  very 
touching  greeting  between  his  mother  and  himself,  after 
so  many  years  of  separation.  To  his  amused  amazement, 
she  kept  on  patting  him  on  the  head  like  a  small  boy  (our 
mother  was  a  very  tall  woman),  while  she  informed  him 
that  she  intended  finishing  the  work  on  the  terrace  at 
Avondale  which  she  had  left  off  in  our  father's  time. 

"  That  would  be  a  very  good  thing  to  do,"  he  said. 
"  I  have  no  time,  but  you  can  gladly  have  all  the  help 


282      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

you  want  from  the  men  on  the  place,  and  get  them  to  do 
all  you  tell  them." 

Accordingly,  she  set  to  work  with  great  glee,  ordering 
the  men  to  carry  out  her  instructions,  and  before  I  left 
she  had  constructed  several  nice  terraces  round  the  house, 
and  had  removed  a  lot  of  bushes  which  were  hiding  the 
view  from  the  lower  windows. 

One  morning  Charley  woke  me  up  early  and  asked  me 
to  come  with  him  to  Aughavannagh  to  look  at  some  turf 
on  his  estate  there.  After  having  breakfast  at  the  game- 
keeper's house,  we  walked  all  over  Blackrock  Hill,  care- 
fully examining  the  different  qualities  of  turf.  The  turf 
on  Blackrock  was  considered  to  be  the  best  in  the  whole 
country,  and  Charley  wished  to  get  a  market  for  it. 

A  few  days  later  we  paid  another  visit  to  the  sawmill, 
where  the  men  were  hard  at  work  cutting  beech  sets  for 
the  Dublin  Corporation.  The  demand,  however,  was 
more  for  stone  than  wooden  sets,  and,  unfortunately,  the 
stone  which  he  was  getting  out  of  his  quarries  was  not 
suitable,  although  those  whom  he  consulted  advised  him 
to  continue  quarrying  it,  with  the  result  that  he  lost  many 
thousand  pounds.  We  also  had  a  look  at  a  flag  quarry, 
which,  however,  was  not  paying,  and  was  dropped. 

One  day,  after  Charley  had  despaired  of  getting  any 
stone  from  Avondale  which  was  really  suitable  for  set- 
making,  an  engineer,  Mr.  Patrick  McDonald,  came  to  see 
him,  and  told  him  he  knew  where  there  was  a  splendid 
whinstone  quarry,  or,  rather,  a  hill  of  whinstone,  which 
would  do  splendidly  for  set-making.  Charley,  when  he 
heard  where  it  was,  said:  "  Oh,  it  is  on  Lord  Carysfort's 
land,  and  he  won't  let  me  have  it,  because  he  disapproves 
of  my  politics."  Mr.  McDonald  thought  that  Lord 
Carysfort  would  not  mind  the  hill  being  worked,  so  long 
as  he  got  the  royalties  from  the  stone  that  was  quarried. 
However,  Charley  thought  it  was  not  worth  while  asking 
him.     Still,  he  paid  a  secret  visit  to  the  hill  in  company 


APPENDICES  283 

with  Mr.  McDonald,  and  brought  back  samples  of  the 
stone,  which  seemed  to  be  admirably  adapted  to  the 
purpose  for  which  he  required  it.  Finally,  through 
the  agency  of  Mr.  McDonald,  a  twelve  years'  lease  was 
granted  by  Lord  Carysfort.  When,  however,  Lord 
Carysfort  found  out  to  whom  he  had  actually  leased  the 
quarry,  he  said:  "  Oh,  Parnell  could  have  easily  come  to 
me,  instead  of  going  behind  my  back.  I  would  willingly 
have  given  it  to  him  if  only  to  provide  work  for  the  people." 

As  soon  as  Charley  had  had  McDonald's  lease  trans- 
ferred to  himself,  he  set  to  work  excavating  the  stone. 
Finding  that  the  local  men  were  not  sufficiently  expe- 
rienced, he  imported  several  stone-cutters  from  Wales, 
who  had  been  brought  up  to  the  work  from  their  boy- 
hood. These  were  housed  on  the  mountain-side  in  a 
number  of  little  huts. 

In  November  my  fruit  business  necessitated  my  return- 
ing to  America,  and  I  said  good-bye  to  my  mother, 
Emily,  Delia,  and  Charley,  and  returned  to  New  York. 

Back  again. 

I  returned  to  Ireland  again  in  1887,  filled  with  a  longing 
for  the  fresh  mountain  air  of  Aughavannagh.  I  found 
Charley  very  busy  working  his  new  quarry  at  Arklow. 
He  experienced  considerable  difficulty,  however,  as  set- 
making  by  itself  did  not  pay.  The  trouble  was  that  an 
immense  amount  of  refuse  accumulated,  which  was  very 
much  in  the  way  and  very  costly  to  remove,  and  he  and 
his  friends  devoted  a  great  deal  of  time  to  considering 
what  could  be  done  with  it.  He  finally  sent  an  expert 
to  \A^ales  to  find  out  there  what  was  done  with  the  refuse 
stone.  He  adopted  the  Welsh  system  of  crushing  the 
waste  stone  into  macadam  by  machinery,  sorting  it  into 
different  grades  by  means  of  large  iron  sieves,  even  the 
dust  being  utilized  for  making  cement.     The  installation 


284      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

of  the  machinery  cost  Charley  several  thousand  pounds, 
and  necessitated  the  employment  of  many  additional 
workmen,  but  began  to  pay  almost  immediately  it  was 
adopted. 

One  great  improvement  that  he  had  effected  since 
my  last  visit  was  the  building  of  an  inclined  railway 
line  from  the  mountains  to  the  coast,  enabling  him  to 
transport  his  stone  by  sea,  instead  of  by  land,  at  a  con- 
siderable reduction  of  expense.  Directly  the  Welsh 
quarries  discovered  that  Charley  had  started  to  under- 
mine their  monopoly,  they  started  to  cut  their  prices, 
but  the  Dublin  Corporation,  acting  in  a  very  fine  patriotic 
spirit,  offered  Charley  more  for  his  sets  than  the  Welsh 
quarry  owners  were  asking  them,  in  order  to  provide 
work  for  Irish  labourers. 


A  Great  Scheme. 

Charley  took  me  to  examine  the  old  lead-mines  which 
were  worked  a  generation  ago.  He  was  trying  to  find 
out  if  any  of  the  veins  in  these  disused  mines  ran  across 
to  the  mountains  on  his  own  estate.  Naturally,  he  heard 
many  curious  stories  when  he  came  to  make  inquiries. 
One  of  his  tenants  told  him  that  his  father,  whilst  driving 
his  cattle  across  the  mountain,  found  that  one  of  them, 
while  cropping  the  short  grass,  had  scraped  bare  a  vein 
of  lead.  The  man,  however,  had  forgotten  the  exact 
place  where  this  was  believed  to  have  occurred,  and 
Charley  and  I  spent  much  time  in  fruitless  searches  for  it. 

Charley  during  this  time  described  to  me  in  detail  his 
great  scheme  for  the  development  of  the  minerals  and 
coalfields  of  Wicklow  and  Kilkenny.  He  said:  "  When 
I  am  able,  I  will  get  the  Dublin,  Wicklow,  and  Wexford 
Railway,  in  conjunction  with  the  Great  Southern  Rail- 
way, to  build  a  line  from  the  Meeting  of  the  Waters,  right 
through  Glenmalure,  to  the  Kilkenny  coalfields,  tapping 


APPENDICES  285 

the  lead  and  iron  mines  on  their  way."  His  great  idea 
was  to  connect  the  iron  at  Avoca  and  Rathdriim  with  the 
coal  in  Kilkenny.  His  scheme  no  doubt  originated  from 
the  observations  which  he  made  of  the  coal  and  iron  fields 
in  Alabama  dming  our  visit  there  in  1871. 

We  also  went  to  look  at  a  shaft  which  he  had  sunk  in  a 
field  belonging  to  his  tenant,  Mr.  Nicholas  Devereux. 
He  was  looking  here  for  gold,  as  there  was  a  quaitz  vein 
which,  on  analysis  in  his  laboratory  at  Brighton,  he  had 
found  to  contain  gold  to  some  extent.  In  the  same  field 
he  had  found  a  bed  of  yellow  ochre,  which  we  examined, 
but  he  said  it  would  not  pay  unless  he  could  find  the 
copper  which  almost  always  run  in  company  with  it.  He 
was  then  and  afterwards  engaged  at  intervals  in  searching 
for  this  copper  vein,  which  he  had  reason  to  believe  was 
in  existence  close  by. 

These  brief  references  I  have  made  to  Charley's  indus- 
trial activities  will  show  that,  quite  apart  from  politics, 
he  took  a  very  keen  interest  in  mineralogy,  as  also  in  the 
different  works  carried  on  on  his  estate.  How  engrossing 
this  hobby  of  his  was,  few  of  those  who  only  knew  him  as 
a  politician  ever  guessed.  He  took  a  great  pride  in  his 
industries,  which  formed  really  quite  a  separate  part  of 
his  life ;  but  his  shyness  prevented  his  talking  about  them 
to  any  but  very  intimate  friends,  especially  as,  on  the 
whole,  they  did  not  prove  a  financial  success.  StiU, 
their  influence  upon  his  character  must  be  taken  into 
consideration  when  forming  a  general  estimate  of  the 
man  as  he  really  was  beneath  his  mask  of  ice. 


APPENDIX  D 

WHERE  THE  TRIBUTE  WENT  TO 

Financial  Difficulties. 

I  HAVE  been  often  asked  what  Charley  did  with  the  sum  of 
nearly  £40,000  subscribed  for  him  by  the  Irish  nation. 
People  have  also  wished  to  know  how  it  was  that,  having 
been  left  by  his  father  the  fine  estate  of  Avondale,  free  and 
unencumbered,  he  came  to  be  in  such  straits  that  he  had 
to  mortgage  it,  and  how  it  was  that  on  his  death,  in  spite 
of  the  £40,000  tribute,  he  was  so  heavily  in  debt.  They 
are  not  easy  questions  to  answer,  but  I  shall  endeavour  to 
do  my  best. 

Charley's  financial  embarrassment  had  reached  a  head 
in  188 1,  after  returning  from  America.  He  was  very 
anxious  then  to  find  money  to  send  to  his  mother  in  New 
York,  as,  owing  to  the  loss  of  the  property  her  brother 
had  left  her,  in  the  Black  Friday  panic,  she  was  practically 
destitute.  He  wrote  to  me  saying  that,  if  I  would  mort- 
gage my  National  Bank  shares,  he  would  back  bills  for 
£3,000,  which  I  agreed  to  do.  This  shows  that  he  had 
actually  no  money  left,  not  even  to  help  his  own  family. 

Once  he  became  leader,  his  expenses,  of  course,  in- 
creased enormously.  A  great  number  of  the  members 
of  the  Irish  party  had  no  money  of  their  own,  and  he  had 
not  only  to  finance  them  in  their  election  campaigns,  but 
in  many  cases  actually  to  keep  them.  So,  by  December  11, 
1883,  he  was  in  desperate  need  of  money.  Still,  he  formed 
the  resolution  not  to  allow  a  penny  of  the  £40,000  to  go  out 

286 


APPENDICES  287 

of  the  country.  I  remember  him  telling  me  this,  and  also 
giving  me  some  idea  to  what  purposes  he  intended  to 
devote  the  tribute  money.  There  was  a  mortgage  on 
Avondale  of  £5,000,  which  he  paid  off,  though  he  after- 
wards remortgaged  the  property  for  £6,000.  A  mortgage 
of  £10,000  in  favour  of  our  aunt,  Mrs.  Wigram,  he  left  out- 
standing, and  I  had  finally  to  pay  it  off.  On  his  quarries 
he  also  sank  a  great  deal,  and  an  attempt  to  develop  the 
gold  resources  of  the  Wicklow  Hills,  which,  although  a 
certain  amount  of  gold  was  found,  never  paid,  cost  him 
fully  £500.  At  the  start  the  Arklow  quarry  cost  him 
£10,000,  and  before  it  began  to  pay  he  had  to  spend 
another  £5,000  on  machinery.  In  addition  he  bought 
up  the  head-rent  of  the  Kingston  demesne,  near  Avon- 
dale,  for  £3,000,  and  spent  fully  £1,500  in  doing  up  Mount 
Avon  House.  He  also  paid  off  a  number  of  debts  which 
he  had  contracted  in  Wicklow  and  elsewhere.  It  must 
be  remembered,  of  course,  that  the  wages  he  was  paying 
to  his  men  at  Avondale,  who  were  engaged  in  various 
occupations,  amounted  to  quite  £50  a  week.  Then, 
during  the  famine  years  very  few  of  the  tenants  on  the 
Avondale  estate  paid  their  rents,  and  even  after  the 
famine  was  over  they  kept  up  this  custom  largely,  finding 
that  he  was  an  easy-going  landlord  and  could  not  bear 
the  idea  of  eviction. 

You  do  not  wonder,  under  these  circumstances,  at  his 
occasionally  showing  the  attitude  described  in  the  follow- 
ing anecdote,  which  I  believe  to  be  perfectly  true.  He 
had  addressed  a  crowded  meeting  one  day  in  his  own 
county  of  Wicklow,  and  was  driving  away  to  another 
meeting  some  distance  off,  when  a  friend  who  was  with 
him  in  the  car  noticed  one  of  the  men,  who  had  been 
cheering  Charley's  speech  most  enthusiastically  at  the 
meeting,  following  the  car  with  doglike  devotion  mile 
after  mile.  The  man  kept  on  following,  cheering  and 
waving  his  hat  as  he  went,  but  Charley  sat  upright  and 


288       CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

expressionless  in  the  car.  His  friend,  taking  pity  on  so 
much  unrequited  loyalty,  said  to  Charley:  "  You  might 
just  say  a  word  of  encouragement  to  that  poor  fellow; 
he  has  followed  you  for  seven  miles,  and  hasn't  got  so 
much  as  a  smile  from  you."  "  Let  him  run  a  little  longer," 
said  Charley,  "  seeing  that  I  have  let  his  rent  run  for 
seven  years." 

In  addition  to  his  quarries,  the  erection  of  his  new 
sawmills  and  cattle-sheds  cost  him  at  least  £3,000,  and 
the  iron-mine  near  Rathdrum  cost  him  several  hundred 
pounds.  His  travelling  expenses  were  very  heavy,  and 
he  had,  of  course,  to  live  a  good  deal  in  London,  which  cost 
him  a  considerable  amount. 

Before  his  death  he  mortgaged  Avondale  to  the 
National  Bank  for  a  further  sum  of  £6,000. 

His  debts,  which  I  had  to  pay  after  his  death,  com- 
pelling me  to  sell  Avondale,  amounted  to  over  £50,000, 
a  figure  which  I  have  just  verified. 

The  sum  total  which  he  spent  between  1881  and  1891 
amounted  to  about  £90,000. 

I  was  unable  to  help  my  brother  at  all,  as  the  fortune 
left  to  me  by  Sir  Ralph  Howard  came  to  an  end  very 
shortly,  owing  to  the  company  going  bankrupt.  Moreover, 
Charley's  bills,  which  he  had  persuaded  me  to  draw  in 
order  to  provide  money  for  our  mother,  fell  due,  and  I 
had  to  sell  what  little  capital  I  had,  while  my  promising 
fruit  business  was  crippled  for  want  of  money. 

The  foregoing  will  give  some  idea  of  the  many  expenses 
which  Charley  had  to  meet,  and  will  show  that  even  such 
a  sum  as  £40,000  could  be  easily  swallowed  up  by  his 
liabilities  and  current  expenses. 

I  remember  him  in  1887  complaining  of  the  financial 
difficulties  in  which  he  again  found  himself  involved,  and 
saying  to  me:  "  Well,  John,  politics  is  the  only  thing  I 
ever  got  any  money  from,  and  I  am  looking  for  another 
subscription  now."     I  think  he  was  quite  serious  when 


APPENDICES  289 

he  said  it,  but,  of  course,  a  fresh  tribute  was  not  forth- 
coming. 

To  illustrate  how  largely  his  private  money  went  in 
financing  his  party,  I  distinctly  recall  a  remark  he  made 
to  me  once  when  driving  from  Rathdrum  to  Avondale. 
We  passed  on  the  road  a  couple  of  M.P's.,  both  prominent 
members  of  his  party,  making  their  way  on  foot  to  Avon- 
dale.  To  my  surprise,  Charley  drove  right  past  them, 
with  a  curt  nod  but  no  slackening  of  speed.  I  asked  him 
why  he  had  not  stopped  and  offered  them  a  lift,  as  there 
was  plenty  of  room  in  the  car.  He  replied  grimly:  "  Let 
them  walk,  it'll  do  them  good;  they  are  only  coming  up 
to  put  their  hands  in  my  pockets  and  get  some  more 
money."  This  showed  that,  lavish  as  he  was  towards 
his  party,  he  was  only  too  aware  that  advantage  was  very 
often  taken  of  his  generosity. 


19 


APPENDIX  E 

A  FRIEND'S  APPRECIATION 

Just  when  this  book  was  going  to  press,  I  received  a 
letter  from  Mr.  Joseph  McCarroU  of  Wicklow,  one  of 
Charley's  oldest  friends  and  supporters.  It  contains 
many  vivid  touches,  such  as  only  an  eyewitness  of  the 
critical  portions  of  my  brother's  life  could  have  given, 
and  I  make  no  apology  for  giving  it  in  full : 

Dear  Mr.  Parnell, 

I  rejoice  to  learn  you  are  writing  the  life  of 
your  illustrious  brother,  the  late  Charles  Stewart 
Parnell.  No  other  writer  but  yourself  could  deal  so 
fully  and  faithfully  with  his  early  days,  his  boyhood 
and  glorious  manhood.  You  understood  his  every 
fibre,  and  his  ardent  love  for  Avondale,  the  historic 
home  of  the  Parnells.  You  knew  that  under  his  cold 
self-restraint  there  beat  a  heart  passionately  throb- 
bing with  love  for  home  and  country.  That  love 
doubtless  was  inflamed  by  the  flag  of  the  Irish 
Volunteer  waving  in  the  halls  of  Avondale.  It  must 
have  brought  to  his  mind  glories  of  '82,  when  "  Dun- 
gannon  spoke,  and  the  thunders  of  her  cannon  woke 
the  echoes  of  Liberty."  Who  can  say  how  much 
this  old  flag  influenced  a  silent  resolve  in  Parnell 
that  he  himself  might  one  day  do  similar  work  for 
Ireland  ?  The  example  of  his  father,  too,  in  espousing 
the  popular  side  in  local  contests,  must  have  had 
much  to  do  in  strengthening  his  innate  love  for  free- 
dom and  justice.  The  late  Father  Maloney,  P.P., 
290 


APPENDICES  291 

of  Barndarrig,  then  the  Catholic  curate  in  Rathdrum , 
used  to  revel  in  describing  the  scenes  and  successes 
won  by  Mr.  H.  Parnell  for  local  rights  and  popular 
control. 

It  is  remarkable  how  unerring  is  the  national 
instinct  in  the  choice  of  a  leader.  After  the  founding 
of  Butt's  Home  Rule,  its  founders  turned  to  Avondale, 
and  a  deputation,  headed  by  Mr.  A.  J.  Kettle,  was 
sent  to  enlist  Charles  Stewart  Parnell  in  the  new 
movement.  Mr.  Parnell  received  the  deputation 
graciously,  and  after  a  long  interchange  of  views  he 
assented  to  join  the  Home  Rule  organization.  His 
first  appearance  as  a  public  speaker  in  the  Rotunda 
was  hailed  with  great  delight,  the  audience  cheering 
wildly  as  he  walked  up  the  floor  to  the  platform. 
He  was  introduced  to  the  audience  by  the  late  A.  M. 
Sullivan.  His  speech  was  slow  but  thoughtful.  After 
the  meeting  Mr.  Sullivan  declared  that  the  silent  and 
reserved  young  man  would  prove  worthy  of  "  Parnell 
the  Incorruptible,"  whom  neither  the  peerages  of 
Castlereagh  nor  the  gold  of  Pitt  could  seduce  into 
voting  for  the  Union.  So  great  was  the  confidence 
inspired  by  Parnell  that  he  was  solicited  to  contest 
for  County  Dublin,  and  to  this  he  consented,  which 
cost  him  £15,000.  Of  course  he  was  defeated,  the 
country  only  just  awakening  to  the  new  spirit. 
Many  a  time  I  have  listened  with  rapture  to  Mr. 
Kettle's  account  of  the  selection  and  the  uphill 
fight  that  the  Home  Rulers  made.  The  sacrifices 
Mr.  Parnell  made  in  contesting  County  Dublin  were 
not  forgotten,  and  it  is  to  the  credit  of  County  Wicklow 
that  the  first  resolution  for  a  Parnell  testimonial  was 
carried  with  acclamation  by  a  large  meeting  in 
Greenare.  I  drafted  the  resolution,  and  wrote  to 
the  Chief  asking  his  permission  formally  to  inaugurate 
the  testimonial.  He  replied  thanking  me,  but  de- 
clined permission,  sajdng  he  could  get  on  very  well. 
Subsequently  the  Avoca  Land  League  (T.  A.  iByrne, 
President)  had  the  honour  of  opening  the  Parnell 


292      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

testimonial,  the  late  W.  J.  Corbett  being  one  of  the 
tirst  subscribers. 

In  Parnell's  struggle  to  wipe  out  Whiggery  and  give 
representation  to  the  nation,  of  course  he  met  with 
the  fiercest  opposition  from  the  old  ascendancy,  the 
Whigs  and  mongrels.  The  Enniscorthy  fight  was 
one  of  the  earliest  and  the  worst.  Parnell  received 
some  rough  handling.  In  the  end  he  triumphed. 
Indignant  at  the  treatment  he  received  in  Ennis- 
corthy, Wicklow  called  a  great  meeting  to  sustain 
Parnell,  and  to  show  him  he  had  the  nation  at  his 
back.  The  Market  Square  was  packed  and  the 
enthusiasm  unbounded.  The  scene  was  an  inde- 
scribable one,  and  the  Chief  never  forgot  it.  The 
addresses  breathed  the  spirit  of  the  hills,  and  he  was 
accompanied  to  the  railway-station  by  a  large  crowd 
and  a  torchlight  procession.  Standing  up  at  his 
departure,  all  his  old  faith  full  in  him,  he  declared 
that  nothing  would  turn  him  from  his  course  till 
Ireland  was  free;  for  he  recognized  that  Wicklow, 
despite  the  oppression  of  centuries,  was  as  true  to 
Ireland  as  when  she  routed  Lord  de  Grey  in  Glen- 
malure. 

I  was  present  with  Parnell  at  the  great  meeting  at 
Wexford.  It  looked  like  a  rising  of  the  nation. 
His  speech  replying  to  Gladstone's  famous  utterance 
at  Leeds,  touching  the  "  resources  of  civilization," 
was  scathing.  It  cost  him  his  liberty,  and  as  a 
"  suspect "  he  soon  found  himself  in  Kilmainham. 
It  was  thought  that  his  imprisonment  would  drive 
the  Land  League  into  open  rebellion;  but,  though 
Parnell  was  in  prison,  his  spirit  and  counsel  were 
free  outside,  and  even  more  potent.  I  had  the  honour 
of  visiting  him  in  Kilmainham.  He  looked  pale, 
but  never  complained,  though  his  soul  chafed  under 
the  confinement.  With  two  spies  standing  by,  no 
political  question  could  be  touched.  He  made  many 
inquiries  about  the  Wicklow  harbour,  in  which  he 
took  a  warm  interest;  and  no  wonder,  as  it  was  his 


APPENDICES  293 

influence  in  the  county  and  in  London  that  enabled 
the  Wicklow  Town  and  Harbour  Commissioners  to 
obtain  the  loan  from  the  Treasury  that  built  the  fine 
Wicklow  breakwater  and  steamboat  pier.  It  was 
singular  that,  with  his  life  swallowed  up  in  political 
convulsions,  he  yet  always  manifested  a  keen  interest 
in  industrial  questions.  The  large  sums  he  spent  in 
exploring  for  lead  in  Avondale  and  the  Bally  Capple 
copper  and  iron  ore  mines  illustrate  this.  Had  he 
been  spared,  these  latter  mines  of  Bally  Capple 
would  now  be  giving  employment  and  diffusing 
wealth  over  a  large  area.  There  is  no  question  what- 
ever of  the  ore  being  there,  and  in  abundance.  With 
motor  lorries  the  difficulties  of  transit  to  the  port  of 
Wicklow  would  vanish.  The  Parnell  quarries  re- 
main, a  standing  proof  of  his  fostering  of  industrial 
development.  There  was  a  huge  rock  that  Lord 
Carysfort,  though  a  man  of  unhmited  capital,  never 
thought  of  developing.  It  remained  to  Parnell  to 
make  it  the  centre  of  industries  giving  much  em- 
ployment to  Arklow  and  the  neighbourhood. 
Nothing  so  much  delighted  him  as  to  see  his  country- 
men actively  employed  in  remunerative  work  in 
their  own  land,  happy  and  contented. 

I  have  made  this  letter  far  too  long,  but  the 
subject — the  memory  of  the  greatest  Irishman  of  our 
own  or  of  any  age — must  plead  my  excuse. 

Wishing  your  book  great  success,  dear  Mr.  Parnell, 
Very  faithfully  yours, 

Joseph  McCarroll. 


APPENDIX  F 

THE  MANIFESTO  OF  1890 

Although  as  a  rule  I  have  abstained  from  making 
quotations  of  any  length  in  this  book,  and  have  specially 
avoided  the  inclusion  of  lengthy  documents  in  extenso, 
yet  I  feel  I  must  make  an  exception  in  the  case  of  this 
manifesto,  seeing  that  it  is  one  of  the  very  few  cases  in 
which  Charley  has  committed  to  writing  his  innermost 
thoughts,  and  that  those  deal  with  the  Home  Rule 
question  in  detail.  Although  long,  I  do  not  think  it  will 
be  found  in  the  slightest  degree  wearisome,  and  being,  as 
it  is,  the  supreme  declaration  of  my  brother's  policy,  I  do 
not  like  to  run  the  risk  of  spoiling  it  by  resorting  to  con- 
densation, which  would  mean  the  exercising  of  my  own 
judgment  as  to  the  parts  which  I  considered  to  be  im- 
portant or  the  reverse.  It  would  therefore,  in  my  opinion, 
be  fairer  to  give  this  very  interesting  document  in  full, 
and  allow  my  readers  to  exercise  their  own  judgment 
with  regard  to  it.  The  following  is  its  form  as  it  appeared 
in  the  Times  of  November  29,  1890 : 

Mr.  ParneU  issued  at  a  late  hour  last  night  the 
following  manifesto  to  the  Irish  people : 

To  THE  People  of  Ireland. 

The  integrity  and  independence  of  a  section  of 

the  Irish  Parliamentary  party  having  been  sapped 

and   destroyed  by  the  wirepullers  of  the   Enghsh 

Liberal  party,  it  has  become  necessary  for  me  as 

294 


APPENDICES  295 

the  leader  of  the  Irish  nation  to  take  counsel  with 
you,  and,  having  given  you  the  knowledge  which 
was  in  my  possession,  to  ask  your  judgment  upon 
the  matter  which  now  solely  devolves  upon  you  to 
decide. 

The  letter  from  Mr.  Gladstone  to  Mr.  Morley, 
written  for  the  purpose  of  influencing  the  decision  of 
the  Irish  party  in  the  choice  of  their  leader,  and 
claiming  for  the  Liberal  party  and  their  leaders  the 
right  of  veto  upon  that  choice,  is  the  immediate  cause 
of  this  address  to  you,  to  remind  you  and  your 
Parliamentary  representatives  that  Ireland  considers 
the  independence  of  her  party  as  her  only  safeguard 
within  the  Constitution,  and  above  and  beyond  all 
other  considerations  whatever.  The  threat  in  that 
letter,  repeated  so  insolently  on  many  English  plat- 
forms and  in  numerous  British  newspapers,  that 
unless  Ireland  concedes  this  right  of  veto  to  England 
she  will  indefinitely  postpone  her  chances  of  obtain- 
ing Home  Rule,  compels  me,  while  not  for  one 
moment  admitting  the  slightest  probability  of  such 
loss,  to  put  before  you  information  which  until  now, 
so  far  as  my  colleagues  are  concerned,  has  been  solely 
in  my  possession,  and  which  will  enable  you  to  under- 
stand the  measure  of  the  loss  with  which  you  are 
threatened  unless  you  consent  to  throw  me  to  the 
English  wolves  now  howling  for  my  destruction. 

In  November  of  last  year,  in  response  to  a  re- 
peated and  long-standing  request,'  I  visited  Mr. 
Gladstone  at  Hawarden,  and  received  the  details  of 
the  intended  proposal  of  himself  and  his  colleagues 
of  the  late  Liberal  Cabinet  with  regard  to  Home 
Rule,  in  the  event  of  the  next  General  Election  favour- 
ing the  Liberal  party. 

It  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  do  more  at  present 
than  to  direct  your  attention  to  certain  points  of 
these  details,  which  will  be  generally  recognized  as 
embracing  elements  vital  for  your  information  and 
the  formation  of  your  judgment.    These  vital  points 


296      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

of  difficulty  may  be  suitably  arranged  and  considered 
under  the  following  heads : 

1.  The   retention   of   the   Irish   members  in   the 

Imperial  Parliament. 

2.  The  settlement  of  the  land  or  agrarian  difficulty 

in  Ireland. 

3.  The  control  of  the  Irish  Constabulary. 

4.  The  appointment  of  the  Judiciary   (including 

Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  County  Court 
Judges,  and  resident  magistrates). 

Upon  the  subject  of  the  retention  of  the  Irish 
members  in  the  Imperial  Parliament,  Mr.  Gladstone 
told  me  that  the  opinion,  and  the  unanimous  opinion, 
of  his  colleagues  and  himself,  recently  arrived  at 
after  most  mature  consideration  of  alternative  pro- 
posals, was  that,  in  order  to  conciliate  English  public 
opinion,  it  would  be  necessary  to  reduce  the  Irish 
representation  from  103  to  32. 

Upon  the  settlement  of  the  land,  it  was  held 
that  this  was  one  of  the  questions  which  must  be 
regarded  as  questions  reserved  from  the  control  of 
the  Irish  Legislature,  but  at  the  same  time  Mr. 
Gladstone  intimated  that,  while  he  would  renew  his 
attempt  to  settle  the  matter  by  Imperial  legislation 
on  the  lines  of  the  Land  Purchase  Bill  of  1886,  he 
would  not  undertake  to  put  any  pressure  upon  his 
own  side  or  insist  upon  their  adopting  his  views — 
in  other  and  shorter  words,  that  the  Irish  Legislature 
was  not  to  be  given  the  power  of  solving  the  agrarian 
difficulty,  and  that  the  Imperial  Parliament  would 
not. 

With  regard  to  the  control  of  the  Irish  Constabu- 
lary, it  was  stated  by  Mr.  Gladstone  that,  having 
regard  to  the  necessity  for  conciliating  English  public 
opinion,  he  and  his  colleagues  felt  that  it  would  be 
necessary  to  leave  this  force  and  the  appointment 
of  its  officers  under  the  control  of  the  Imperial 
authority  for  an  indefinite  period,  while  the  funds 


APPENDICES  297    ' 

for  its  maintenance,  payment,  and  equipment,  would 
be  compulsorily  provided  out  of  Irish  resources. 

The  period  of  ten  or  twelve  years  was  suggested  as 
the  limit  of  time  during  which  the  appointment  of 
Judges,  resident  magistrates,  etc.,  should  be  retained 
in  the  hands  of  the  Imperial  authority. 

I  have  now  given  a  short  account  of  what  I 
gathered  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  views  and  those  of  his 
colleagues  during  two  hours'  conversation  at  Hawar- 
den — a  conversation  which  I  am  bound  to  admit 
was  mainly  monopohzed  by  Mr.  Gladstone — and  pass 
to  my  own  expressions  of  opinion  upon  these  com- 
munications, which  represent  my  views  then  as  now. 

And,  first,  with  regard  to  the  retention  of  the 
Irish  members,  the  position  I  have  always  adopted, 
and  then  represented,  is  that,  with  the  concession 
of  full  powers  to  the  Irish  Legislature  equivalent  to 
those  enjoyed  by  a  State  of  the  American  Union, 
the  number  and  possession  of  the  members  so  re- 
tained would  become  a  question  of  Imperial  concern, 
and  not  of  pressing  or  immediate  importance  for  the 
interests  of  Ireland.  But  that,  with  the  important 
and  all-engrossing  subjects  of  agrarian  reform,  con- 
stabulary control,  and  judiciary  appointments,  left 
either  under  Imperial  control  or  totally  unprovided 
for,  it  would  be  the  height  of  madness  for  any  Irish 
leader  to  imitate  Grattan's  example,  and  consent  to 
disband  the  army  which  had  cleared  the  wa^^  to 
victory. 

I  further  undertook  to  use  every  legitimate  in- 
fluence to  reconcile  Irish  public  opinion  to  a  gradual 
coming  into  force  of  the  new  privileges,  and  to  the 
postponements  necessary  for  English  opinion  with 
regard  to  constabulary  control  and  judicial  appoint- 
ments, but  strongly  dissented  from  the  proposed 
reduction  of  members  during  the  interval  of  proba- 
tion. I  pointed  to  the  absence  of  any  suitable 
prospect  of  land  settlement  by  either  Parliament 
as    constituting   an  overwhelming    drag    upon    the 


298      CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

prospects  of  permanent  peace  and  prosperity  in 
Ireland. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  interview  I  was  informed 
that  Mr.  Gladstone  and  all  his  colleagues  were  en- 
tirely agreed  that,  pending  the  General  Election, 
silence  should  be  absolutely  preserved  with  regard 
to  any  points  of  difference  on  the  question  of  the 
retention  of  the  Irish  members. 

I  have  dwelt  with  some  length  upon  these  subjects, 
but  not,  I  think,  disproportionately  to  their  im- 
portance. Let  me  say  in  addition  that,  even  when 
full  powers  are  conceded  to  Ireland  over  her  own 
domestic  affairs,  the  integrity,  number,  and  inde- 
pendence, of  the  Irish  party  will  be  a  matter  of  no 
importance ;  but  until  this  ideal  is  reached  it  is  3^our 
duty  and  mine  to  hold  fast  every  safeguard. 

I  need  not  say  that  the  questions — the  vital  and 
important  questions — of  the  retention  of  the  Irish 
members  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  indefinite  delay 
of  full  powers  to  the  Irish  Legislature  on  the  other, 
gave  me  great  concern.  The  absence  of  any  pro- 
vision for  the  settlement  of  the  agrarian  question, 
of  any  policy  on  the  part  of  the  Liberal  leaders,  fills 
me  with  concern  and  apprehension.  On  the  intro- 
duction of  the  Land  Purchase  Bill  by  the  Govern- 
ment at  the  commencement  of  last  session,  Mt.  Morley 
communicated  with  me  as  to  the  course  to  be  adopted. 
Having  regard  to  the  avowed  absence  of  any  policy 
on  the  part  of  the  Liberal  leaders  and  party  with 
regard  to  the  matter  of  the  land,  I  strongly  advised 
Mr.  Morley  against  any  direct  challenge  of  the 
principle  of  State-aided  land  pmxhase,  and,  finding 
that  the  fears  and  alarms  of  the  English  taxpayer 
to  State  aid  by  the  hypothecation  of  grants  for  local 
purposes  in  Ireland  as  a  counter-guarantee  had  been 
assuaged,  that  a  hopeless  struggle  should  not  be 
maintained,  and  that  we  should  direct  our  sole 
efforts  on  the  second  reading  of  the  Bill  to  the  asser- 
tion of  the  principle  of  local  control.     In  this  I  am 


APPENDICES  299 

bound  to  say  Mr.  Morley  entirely  agreed  with  me, 
but  he  was  at  the  same  time  much  hampered — and 
expressed  his  sense  of  his  position — in  that  direction 
by  the  extreme  section  of  his  party,  led  by  Mr. 
Labouchere.  And  in  a  subsequent  interview  he  im- 
pressed me  with  the  necessity  of  meeting  the  second 
reading  of  the  Bill  with  a  direct  negative,  and  asked 
me  to  imdertake  the  motion.  I  agreed  to  this,  but 
only  on  the  condition  that  I  was  not  to  attack  the 
principle  of  the  measure,  but  to  confine  myself  to  a 
criticism  of  its  details.  I  think  this  was  false  strategy, 
but  it  was  a  strategy  adopted  out  of  regard  to  English 
prejudices  and  Radical  peculiarities.  I  did  the  best 
that  was  possible  under  the  circumstances,  and  the 
several  days'  debate  on  the  second  reading  contrasts 
favourably  with  Mr.  Labouchere' s  recent  and  abor- 
tive attempt  to  interpose  a  direct  negative  to  the  first 
reading  of  a  similar  Bill  yesterday. 

Time  went  on.  The  Government  allowed  their 
attention  to  be  distracted  from  the  question  of  land 
pm-chase  by  the  Bill  for  compensating  English 
publicans,  and  the  agrarian  difficulty  in  Ireland  was 
again  relegated  to  the  future  of  another  session. 
Just  before  the  commencement  of  this  session  I  was 
again  favoured  with  another  interview  with  Mr. 
Morley.  I  impressed  upon  him  the  policy  of  the 
oblique  method  of  procedure  in  reference  to  land 
purchase,  and  the  necessity  and  importance  of  pro- 
viding for  the  question  of  local  control,  and  of  a 
limitation  in  the  application  of  the  funds.  He 
agreed  with  me,  and  I  offered  to  move,  on  the  first 
reading  of  the  BiU,  an  amendment  in  favour  of  this 
local  control,  advising  that,  if  this  were  rejected,  it 
might  be  left  to  the  Radicals  on  the  second  reading 
to  oppose  the  principle  of  the  measure.  This  ap- 
peared to  be  a  proper  course,  and  I  left  Mr.  Morley 
under  the  impression  that  this  would  fall  to  my  duty. 
But  in  addition  he  made  me  a  remarkable  pro- 
posal, referring  to  the  probable  approaching  victory 


300       CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

of  the  Liberal  party  at  the  polls.  He  suggested  some 
considerations  as  to  the  future  of  the  Irish  party. 
He  asked  me  whether  I  would  be  willing  to  assume 
the  office  of  Chief  Secretary  to  the  Lord  Lieutenant 
of  Ireland,  or  to  allow  another  member  of  my  party 
to  take  the  position.  He  also  put  before  me  the 
desirability  of  filling  one  of  the  law  offices  of  the 
Crown  in  Ireland  by  a  legal  member  of  my  party. 
I  told  him,  amazed  as  I  was  at  the  proposal,  that  I 
could  not  agree  to  forfeit  in  any  way  the  indepen- 
dence of  the  party  or  any  of  its  members ;  that  the 
Irish  people  had  trusted  me  in  this  movement  because 
they  believed  that  the  declaration  I  had  made  to 
them  at  Cork  in  1880  was  a  true  one  and  represented 
my  convictions,  and  that  I  would  on  no  account  depart 
from  it.  I  considered  that,  after  the  declarations 
we  had  repeatedly  made,  the  proposal  of  Mr.  Morley, 
that  we  should  allow  ourselves  to  be  absorbed  into 
English  politics,  was  one  based  upon  an  entire  mis- 
conception of  our  position  with  regard  to  the  Irish 
constituencies  and  of  the  pledges  which  we  had  given. 
In  conclusion,  he  directed  my  attention  to  the 
Plan  of  Campaign  estates.  He  said  that  it  would  be 
impossible  for  the  Liberal  party  when  they  attained 
power  to  do  anything  for  these  evicted  tenants  by 
direct  action ;  that  it  would  be  also  impossible  for  the 
Irish  Parliament,  under  the  powers  conferred,  to  do 
anything  for  them ;  and,  flinging  up  his  hands  with  a 
gesture  of  despair,  he  exclaimed:  "  Having  been  to 
Tipper ary,  I  do  not  know  what  to  propose  in  regard 
to  the  matter."  I  told  him  that  this  question  was 
a  limited  one,  and  that  I  did  not  see  that  he  need 
allow  himself  to  be  hampered  by  its  future  con- 
sideration ;  that,  being  limited,  funds  would  be  avail- 
able from  America  and  elsewhere  for  the  support  of 
those  tenants  as  long  as  might  be  necessary;  that, 
of  course,  I  understood  it  was  a  difficulty,  but  that 
it  was  a  limited  one,  and  should  not  be  allowed  to 
interfere  with  the  general  interests  of  the  country. 


APPENDICES  301 

I  allude  to  this  matter  only  because  within  the 
last  few  days  a  strong  argument  in  many  minds  for 
my  expulsion  has  been  that,  unless  the  Liberals 
come  into  power  at  the  next  General  Election,  the 
Plan  of  Campaign  tenants  will  suffer.  As  I  have 
shown,  the  Liberals  propose  to  do  nothing  for  the 
Plan  of  Campaign  tenants  by  direct  action  when  they 
do  come  into  power;  but  I  am  entitled  to  ask  that 
the  existence  of  these  tenants,  whom  I  have  sup- 
ported in  every  way  in  the  past,  and  whom  I  shall 
continue  to  support  in  the  future,  shall  not  constitute 
a  reason  for  my  expulsion  from  Irish  politics.  I 
have  repeatedly  pledged  myself  to  stand  by  these 
evicted  tenants  and  that  they  shall  not  be  allowed 
to  suffer,  and  I  believe  that  the  Irish  people  through- 
out the  world  will  support  me  in  this  policy. 

Sixteen  years  ago  I  conceived  the  idea  of  an  Irish 
Parliamentary  party  independent  of  all  English 
parties.  Ten  years  ago  I  was  elected  the  leader  of 
an  independent  Irish  Parliamentary  party.  During 
these  ten  years  that  party  has  remained  independent, 
and  because  of  its  independence  it  has  forced  upon 
the  English  people  the  necessity  of  granting  Home 
Rule  to  Ireland.  I  believe  that  party  will  obtain 
Home  Rule  only  provided  it  remains  independent  of 
any  English  party. 

I  do  not  believe  that  any  action  of  the  Irish 
people  in  supporting  me  will  endanger  the  Home 
Rule  cause  or  postpone  the  establishment  of  an  Irish 
Parliament;  but  even  if  the  danger  with  which  we 
are  threatened  by  the  Liberal  party  of  to-day  were 
to  be  realized,  I  believe  that  the  Irish  people  through- 
out the  world  would  agree  with  me  that  postpone- 
ment would  be  preferable  to  a  compromise  of  our 
national  rights  by  the  acceptance  of  a  measure  which 
would  not  realize  the  aspirations  of  our  race. 
I  have  the  honour  to  remain, 
Your  faithful  servant, 

Charles  Stewart  Parnell. 


APPENDIX  G 

AvoNDALE  is  not,  as  is  commonly  believed,  an  old  pos- 
session of  the  Parnell  family.  The  ancestral  estate  is  that 
of  Colure  in  Armagh.  The  house  at  Avondale  was  built 
by  Colonel  Hayes,  its  original  proprietor,  in  1777,  this 
date  being  inscribed  inside  the  hall  door.  Colonel  Hayes 
was  a  Colonel  in  the  Irish  Volunteers  during  the  Irish 
Rebellion,  and  the  flags  of  his  regiment  used  to  hang  up 
in  the  hall  at  Avondale,  until,  on  the  death  of  my  brother 
Charley,  they  were  taken  down  and  placed  on  his  coffin. 
Colonel  Hayes  planted  a  great  deal  of  timber  on  the 
estate,  and  it  was  through  a  common  interest  in  forestry 
that  he  formed  a  friendship  with  Sir  John  Parnell,  the 
last  member  of  the  old  Irish  House  of  Commons.  This 
friendship  lasted  until  his  death,  and  was  so  warm  that 
by  his  will  Colonel  Hayes  provided  that  Avondale  should 
pass  to  his  widow  if  she  desired  to  live  there;  but  in  the 
case  of  her  not  wishing  to  do  so,  it  was  to  become  the 
property  of  his  friend,  Sir  John  Parnell,  and  his  heirs. 
Mrs.  Hayes  refused  to  live  at  Avondale,  and  so  the  estate 
passed  to  the  Parnell  family.  The  will  of  Colonel  Hayes 
contained  a  curious  provision  that  the  estate  of  Avondale 
should  always  pass  to  a  younger  member  of  the  family 
(it  being  considered,  no  doubt,  that  the  older  members 
would  be  sufficiently  provided  for  out  of  the  Parnell 
ancestral  estates  in  the  counties  of  Armagh  and  Queens) ; 
and  it  also  stipulated  that  the  owners  of  Avondale  should 
take  the  name  of  Hayes,  or  Parnell-Hayes.  My  grand- 
father was  known  as  William   Parnell-Hayes,   but  the 

302 


APPENDICES  303 

name  Hayes  has  for  some  reason  been  dropped  by  the 
subsequent  heirs  of  the  property.  I  came  across  this  will 
of  Colonel  Hayes's  in  my  father's  desk,  by  accident,  after 
Charley's  death,  and  it  explained  to  me  why  my  father 
should  have  left  Avondale  to  Charley.  The  latter,  I 
think,  never  knew  about  it,  because  he  often  expressed 
regret  that  the  property  should  have  been  left  to  him, 
as  he  felt  that  it  ought  to  have  come  to  me,  as  the  eldest 
son. 

My  father  only  owned  the  Avondale  estate  through 
the  generosity  of  his  sister  Catherine,  the  late  Mrs. 
Wigram,  to  whom  my  grandfather  had  left  it.  My  father 
and  Lord  Powerscourt  were  rivals  for  the  hand  of  Miss 
Delia  Stewart,  the  American  beauty,  daughter  of  Com- 
modore Charles  Stewart,  and,  to  enable  him  to  win  her, 
his  sister  gave  him  Avondale,  in  return  for  a  mortgage 
of  £10,000,  which  was  to  bring  her  in  an  income  of  £500  a 
year.  My  father  left  Avondale  to  Charley  and  an  income 
of  £4,000  a  year;  whilst  I  was  left  the  old  Parnell  estate 
in  Co.  Armagh,  with  only  a  small  income,  because  my 
uncle,  Sir  Ralph  Howard,  had  given  my  father  to  under- 
stand that  I  should  be  his  heir,  which  would  have  made 
me  as  well  provided  for  as  Charley. 


INDEX 


Abercorn,  Duke  of,  114 
Alabama,  C.  S.  Parnell  in,  77-79, 
82-108,  147 
coal-fields  of,  8,  91-94,    103, 

112,  285 
America,  Parnell  as  a  hero  in,  8, 

268-270 
American  Civil  War,  the,  43,  55- 
58,  67,  85,  125,  127 
influence  in  Ireland,  68 

on  Parnell,  196 

National  League,  208, 238, 269 

sympathy  with  the  Irish,  150, 

154,  156-164,  238,  245,  268 

War  of  Independence,  the,  8 

centenary  of,  145,  147 

Arklow,  Parnell  at,  136,  212,  258, 

283,  287 
Armagh  Light  Infantry,  the,  54, 

55.  71 

Army  Reserve,  the,  150 
Arrears  Act,  the,  205 
Athlone,  Parnell  at,  172,  173 
Atlanta    Constitution,    The,    160, 

255.  268 
Atlanta,  Georgia,   158,   160,  255, 

268-270,  276 
Aughavannagh,  Parnell  family  at, 

9,  32,  63,  III,  117,  155,  254,  259, 

282.  283 
Aughrim,  32 

Augusta,  Georgia,  U.S.A.,  56 
Avoca,  285 

Land  League,  the,  291 
Avonbeg  River,  280 
Avondale,  234,  259 

description  of,  14-17,  33 
inherited  by  C.  S.  Parnell,  3, 

9.  14.  39.  58,  114 
mortgages  on,  209,  256,  286, 

288 
Parnell  at,  130,  176,  178,  257, 

263,  278,  281,  287,  290 
quarries  at,  147,  293 
sawmills  at,  59-62,  76,  88,  93, 

113,  147,  256,  257,  278-280, 

293 

Avonmore,  the  river,  3,  4,  14 


Ballyarthur  cricket  team,  31 
Bally  Capple  mines,  the,  293 
Barndarrig,  291 
Barry,  Mr.,  167 

advises  Parnell's  retirement, 
244 
Bennet,  Pat,  256,  257 
Biggar,  Joseph,  arrest  of,  188 

his  campaign  of  obstruction, 

143.  149 
opposes  Parnell,  232 
supports  Parnell,  167 
Birmingham,  Alabama,  79,  S9-97, 

lOI 

Birmingham,  England,  dynamite 
factory  in,  210 
Gladstone  in,  220 
Black  Friday  panic,  the,  138,  286 
Blackrock,  259,  282 
Blake,  Mr.,  167 
Blindfold,  walking,  60 
Bookey,  Captain,  62 
Bordentown,  13 
Bossi,  his  work  at  Avondale,  16 
Boston,  U.S.A.,  44 
Boswell,  James,  6 
Boulogne,  Parnell  in,  251 
Bourrienne,  6 

Boycott,  system  of,  184-187 
Brabazon,  Lord,  47,  48 
Brennan,    Thomas,    secretau'y    of 

the  Land  League,  188 
Brett.  Sergeant,  69,  129 
Bright,  John,  opposes  the  Home 

Rule  Bill,  215,  216 
Brighton,  Parnell  in,  233-235,  252, 

266,  285 
Brooke,  Charles,  24 
Brooklyn,  Land  League  meetings 
in,  163 
Parnell  at,  152,  158 
Brooks,  Mr.,  167 
Brownrigg,  Mr.,  56 
Budget  Bill,  1885,  212 
Bullock  Harbour,  42 
Burke,  Mr.,  murder  of,  200-206, 221 
Butt,  Isaac,  his  leadership,  149- 

152,  166 

305  20 


3o6       CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 


Butt,  Isaac,  his  tenant-right  cam- 
paign,ii3,ii8,i20,i3i,  142,291 
Byrne,  T.  A.,  167,  291 

Cahawba,  Parnell  at,  89 
Callaghan,  Miss,  103 
Callan,  Mr.,  167 
Cambridge,  Parnell  at,  49,  52 
Campbell,  Mr.,  235,  281 
Canada,  Fenian  raid  on,  67 
Candles,  superstition  as  to,  266 
Carlisle,    Earl   of,    as   Lord-Lieu- 
tenant, 54,  55,  72,  122 
Carlow,  252 

property,  inherited  by  Henry 

Parnell  in,  39,  115 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  6 
Carysfort,  Lord,  10,  117 

his  estate  at  Arklow,  258,  282, 

283,  293 
Casino,  the,  15,  34,  36,  44,  51 
Castle  Howard,  24 
Castlereagh,  Lord,  291 
Catholic  Association,  the,  8 
Cavendish,  Lord  Frederick,  mur- 
der of,  200-206,  221 
Chamberlain,  Joseph,  his  share  in 

the     Kilmainham    Treaty, 

197,  231 
opposes  the  Home  Rule  Bill, 

214-216 
supports  Parnell,  153 
Chambers,  Colonel,  86 
Chester,  51 
Chipping  Norton,  Parnell  at,  47- 

52,  97 
Churchill,  51 

Clancy,  Mr.,  opposes  Parnell,  248 
Clan-na-Gael,  the  Parnells'  rela- 
tions with,  152,  154,  162,  165 
Clarinda  Park,  43 
Clarke,  Wilham,  tutor,  35 
Cliphart,  Mr.,  94,  98 
Clover  Hill  mines,  88,  106-108, 148 
Coalfields,   Parnell's    interest    in, 
80,  88-95,  98,  104-108,  112,  130, 

131 

Coercion  Bill,  the,   189-193,  196, 
198,  204,  205,  220 

Collins,  Terry,  84 

Collure,  inherited  by  J.  H.  Par- 
nell, 39,  61,  112,  123,  131,  302 

Colthurst,  Mr.,  167 

Congleton,  Henry  Parnell,  Lord, 
his  career,  7,  8 
Thomas  Parnell,  Mayor  of,  7 

Conoree  Copper  Company,  the,  278 


Corbett,  W.  J.,  on  Parnell,  254 
supports    Parnell,    63,    167, 
281,  292 
Cork,  Daniel  Horgan,  Mayor  of, 
ix-xi 
Parnell  M.P.  for,    119,    166 

250,  300 
pride  in  Parnell  in,  x,  xi 
Cowper,  Lord,  Viceroy  of  Ireland, 

198-200 
Creggs,  Parnell  at,  252 
Cricket,  Parnell's  love  of,  22,  29 

31,  38,  48,  51,  181 
Crimes  Act,  the,  204,  217 
Cummins,  Dr.,  167 

Dalkey,  Parnell  family  at,  40 

Daly,  167 

Davitt,  Michael,  132 

in  America,  153,  187 
supports  Parnell,  153,  203 

Dawson,  167 

Dawson,LadyCarolineElizabeth,8 

Day,  Mr.  Justice,  225 

Derrybawn,  62 

Devereux,  Nicholas,  285 

Dickinson,  Captain,  acts  as  agent, 
59,  60,  112 
in  Dublin,  117,  119,  121-123, 

133 
marries    Emily    Parnell,    11, 

12,  37.  45.  59 
Dickinson,  Emily,  in  Dublin,  119- 
123,  138 
at  Avondale,  256,  263,  277, 
278,  283 
Dillon,  John,  arrest  of,  188,  251 
joins  the  Liberals,  247 
supports   Parnell,   203,    238, 

251 
supports   the   Plan   of  Cam- 
paign, 217 
suspension  of,  190 
visits  America,  156 
Doyle,  Mr.,  268 
Drink,  dog,  86 
Dublin  Castle,  281 

Parnell  at,  188 
County,  contested  by  Parnell, 

137-139.  291 
and  South-Eastern  Railway, 
the,  44 
Dublin,  Parnell  family  in,  32,  38, 
39,  45.  50.  54.  62,  119,  126, 
130 
Parnell  in,  213,  249,  252,  279 
Parnell's  funeral  in,  254 


INDEX 


307 


Dunne,  Mr.,  91 

Dynamite  outrages,  the,  209 

Edward    VII.,    King,    as    Prince, 

visits  Ireland,  212 
Edwards,  Mr.,  engineer,  44,  50 
Egan,    Patrick,    treasurer    of   the 

Land  League,  188,  196 
Eighty  Club,  the,  218 
Elba,  195 
Eltham,  231 
England,  Parnell's  hatred  oi,  128, 

130,  177.  218 
Ennis,  Parnell  at,  186 
Enniscorthy,  Painell  at,  163,  165, 

293 
Enniskerry,  68 
Erne,  Lord,  186 
Errington,  Mr.,  167 

Feeney,  Mr.,  280 

Fenian  Movement,  the,  its  history, 
67-72 
its  influence  on  C.  S.  Parnell, 

72,  118,  127,  129,  145 
Parnell's  relations  with,  152, 
154,  161-163,  167,  185,  208 
Field,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Joseph,  105 
FitzGerald,  Dr.,  246 
Flanigan,  Mr.,  167 
Flogging,  abolition  of,  150,  153 
Foley,  Mr.,  167 
Ford,  Miss,  163,  269 
Ford,  Patrick,  editor  of  the  Irish 

World,  152,  163,  164,  196 
Forster,  Mr.,  as  Chief  Secretary 
for  Ireland,  184-200 
his   attack   on    Parnell,   206, 
207 
Foy,  Mr.,  167 

Frederick  the  Great  of  Prussia,  6 
Freeman's  Journal,  121,  236 
Frozen  fruit  and  meat,  importa- 
tion of,  137,  147 
Funerals,  Parnell's  dread  of,  44, 
265 

Gabbett,  Mr.,  167 
GafEney,  Jack  and  Henry,  278 
Gafiney,  Peter  and  Mary,  60 
Galbraith.  Rev.  Henry,  34 
Galvin,  Father,  supports  Parnell, 

103,  136 
Galway,    representation   of,    141, 

231,  232 
Gibbons,  Pat,  85 
Gill.  Mr.,  167 


Gladstone,  William  Ewart,  as 
Premier,  his  Irish  policy, 
167,  190,  193-198,  212,  213, 
219,  231,  247,  248,  251,  292 

his  collars,  175 

his  Home  Rule  Bill,  214-216, 
220 

his  Land  Act,  190 

Parnell  on,  218 

Parnell's  relations  with,  132, 
190, 193,  202,  240-244,  253. 

295 
Glenmalure,  254,  284,  292 
Glens,  The  O'Donoghue  of  the,  172 
Government  Army  Bill,  the,  153 
Grant,  President,  145,  146 
Grattan,  Henry,  his  Parliament, 

7,  212,  297 
Gray,  Mr.,  167 
Green,  Parnell's  aversion  to.  174, 

263,  264,  273 
Greenare,  291 
Grey,  Lord.  8 
Grey,  Lord  de,  292 

Habeas  Corpus  Act,  suspension  of 

the,  188-193,  198 
Hacketstown,  136 
Hamilton,  Lord  Claude,  114,  115 
Hamilton,  merchant,  52 
Hannen,  Mr.  Justice,  225 
Hansard,  consulted,  142 
Harcourt,  Sir  William,  his  Crimes 
Bill,  204 
his  Irish  policy,  242,  248 
Harrington,  T.,  supports  Parnell, 

223,  238,  247,  260 
Harrison,  Mr.,  235 
Hawarden,  Parnell  at,  295-298 
Hawksley,  Mr.,  solicitor,  234 
Hayden,  Mr.,  M.P.,  172,  173 
Hayes,  Colonel  Samuel,  bequeaths 

Avondale  to  the  Parnells,    14, 

16,  302 
Hayes  family,  the,  at  Avondale,  3 
Healy,  Timothy,  assists  Parnell, 
265 
in  America,  160,  269 
on  Parnell,  237 
Hennessy,    Sir   John   Pope,   con- 
tests Kilkenny,  248,  265 
Hicks-Beach,  Sir  Michael,  as  Chief 

Secretary  for  Ireland,  129,  145 
Hill,  Matt,  85,  125 
Hill.  Senator,  85 
Home  Rule  Bill,  Gladstone's,  214- 

216,  220,  266 


3o8       CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 


Home  Rule  Conference,  1878,  152 
League,  the,  152 
Paxnell's  efEorts  for,  138, 
141,  148,  152-168,  183, 
206,  274 
Paxnell's  prophecy  con- 
cerning, 281 
struggle  for,  68,  118,  131 
138,  141,  274 
Horgan,  Daniel,  Mayor  of  Cork, 

his  tribute  to  Parnell,  vii.-xi. 
Howard,  Sir  Ralph,  guardian,  39, 

59,  III,  113-115,  288,  303 
Hunting,  Parnell's  love  of,  61,  181 

Invincibles,  the,  201-206 
Ipswich,  70 

Ireland,  American  sympathy  with, 
150,  154,  156-164,  238,  245, 
268 
disestabUshment       of       the 

Church  of,  199,  213 
famine  in,  155-161,  167,  183, 

199 
Home  Rule  for,  68,  118,  131, 

134.  141 
outrages  in,  184,  197, 199, 209 
Irish  Insurrection  Act,  the,  8 

ParUament,  the,  7,  134,  212, 

281,  291,  297,  302 
party  in  ParUament,  Parnell 
as  leader  of,  vii.,  131, 
162, 166,  167,  183,  189, 
213,  216,  239-252,  294- 
301 
tactics  of   the,   142-146, 

149-153,  190,  227 
under  Redmond,  259 
priests,  their  attitude  to  Par- 
nell, 240,  250 
Irish  World,  The,  152,  196,  210 

James  I.,  7 

Jersey  City,  108,  163 

Johnson,  Mr.,  guardian,  40 

Kavanagh,  gardener,  33 

Kenny,  Dr.,  252 

Kettle,  A.  J.,  291 

Kilkenny,  coalfields  of,  284,  285 

Kilkenny  election,  the,  248,  250, 

265 
Killarney,  58 

Kilmainham    Prison,  Parnell   in, 
194-198,  292 
Treaty,  the,  197,  205 
King,  Harry,  in  Ireland,  56-58, 125 


Kingham,  51 
Kingsbridge,  58,  119,  250 
Kingston,  near  Avondale,  37,  278, 

287 
Kingstown,  Parnell  family  at,  41- 

44.  "4 
Kirk  Langley.  Peirnell  at  school 
at,  29 

Labouchere,  ?Ienry,  299 

supports  Parnell,  236 
Ladies'  Land  League,  the  activi- 
ties of,  13,  153,  163,  206,  269 
Lalor,  Mr.,  167 
Lancaster,  R.A.,  loS 
Land  Act,  Gladstone's,  190,  212, 

215 
League,    the,    activities    of, 
153,  163,  185,  191. 195, 
266,  291 
its  responsibility  for  out- 
rages, 184,  206,  227 
suppression  of,  188,  193, 
205 
Lanier,  Mr.,  82 
Leahy,  J.,  167 
Leamy,  Mr.,  supports  Parnell,  167, 

246,  249 
Leeds,  194,  292 

Liverpool,   Pcu-nell  in,    iii,    148, 
256 
T.P.  O'Connor,  M.P.  for,  232 
Lonby,  Miss,  11 
Long  Leaf  pine  lands,  104 

Mahon,  Mr.,  167 
Mallon,  Superintendent,  194 
Maloney,  Father,  290 
Manchester  murders,  the,  6g,  71, 

129,  145 
Mangan,  J.  C,  quotation  from,  65 
Marderon,  M.,  29 
Marietta,  271 
Marsh,  Sir  Frederick,  38 
Martin,  John,  M.P.,  139 
Martin,  P.,  167 
Marum,  Mr.,  167 
Maryborough,  191 
Matier,  Mrs.,  11 
Mayo,   Parnell  elected  M.P.  for, 

166 
McCarroU,  Joseph,  his  tribute  to 

Parnell,  290-293 
McCarthy,    Justin,   opposes   Par- 
nell, 246,  248,  251 
supports  Parnell,  167,  237 
McConn,  Mr.,  167 


INDEX 


309 


McDermott,  Alfred,  solicitor,  11, 

40,  256,  277 
McDermott,    Sophy,    11,    13,    40, 

45.  112 
McDermott,   The,   supports   Par- 

nell,  237 
McDonald,  Patrick,  282 
McFarlane,  Mr.,  167 
McKenna,  Mr.,  167 
Meath,  Parnell  returned  for,  139- 
141,  166 
Earl  of,  47 
Meeting  of  the  Waters,  the,  3,  14, 

30,  36,  280,  284 
Melbourne,  Lord,  8 
Meldon,  Mr.,  167 
Merna,  Michael,  5,  278 
Merna,  Mrs.,  79,  82 
Mexico,  Pamell's  father  in,  9 
Militia,  Parnell  as  a  member  of 

the,  54,  71,  72,  148 
Mineralogy,  Parnell's  interest  in, 

25S,  278-2S5,  293 
Montgomery,  U.S.A.,  89,  95-97 
Montreal,  Parnell  in,  161 
Moonlighting,  187,  270 
Moore,  Thomas,  14 
Moran,  P.  J.,  160,  255,  268 
Morley,   Arnold,  publishes  Glad- 
stone's letter,  243 
Morley,  Viscount,  248 

Gladstone's    letter    to,    241- 

243.  295 
his  Irish  policy,  218,  298 
Mount  Avon,  36,  40,  280,  287 
Mount  Jerome,  39,  44 
Mutiny  Bill,  the  Marine,  149,  150 

Naas,  194 
Napoleon  I.,  6,  195 
National   League,    the,    activities 
of,  208,  236,  265 
Liberal  Federation,  the,  241 
New  Orleans,  Parnell  at,  94-98 
Newport,  Rhode  Island,  77-80 
New  York,  256,  269,  277,  282,  286 
Davitt  in,  153 

Land  League  meetings  in,  163, 
Parnell  in,  108,  117,  146,  148, 
156-161 
Nolan,    Colonel,    M.P.,    supports 

Parnell,  141,  149,  246,  247 
Nonconformist  opposition  to  Par- 
nell, 242 
"No  Rent"  Mxnifesto,  the,  196 
North  and  South  Railway,  acci- 
dent on  the,  98-101,  105 


Northcote,  Sir  Stafford,  151 
North  Georgia,  270 
North  Sligo,  252 

O'Brien,  Sir  P.,  167 
O'Brien,  William,  arrest  of,  251 
his  "  No  Rent "  Manifesto,  196 
hisplan  of  compaign,  216, 219, 

266 
joins  the  Liberals,  247,  251 
supports  Parnell,  238 
Obstruction,    Parnell's   campaign 

of,  143,  149-153.  162,  189 
O'Connor,  Arthur,  167 
O'Connor,  T.  P.,  in  America,  238, 
269 
in  Dublin,  277 
joins  the  Liberals,  247 
M.P.,  for  Liverpool,  231 
supports  Parnell,  167 
O'Connor  Don,  The,  43 
October,  regarded  as  ill-omened, 

266 
O'Donnell,     F.     H.,     his    action 

against  the  Times,  225 
O'Donoghue,    The,    his    reminis- 
cences of  Parnell,  172,  173,  177, 
249 
O'Gorman,  Mr.,  167 
O'Kelly,  J.  J.,  supports  Parnell, 

167,  246,  277 
Orangemen,  Canadian,  160,  161 
O'Shea,  Captain,  divorces  his  wife, 
200,  231-236 
returned  for  Galway,  232 
supports  Parnell,  167,  231 
O'Shea,  Misses,  235 
O'Shea,  Mrs.,  her  marriage  with 

Parnell,  11,  81,  231,  234 
O'Sullivan,  W.  H.,  167,  188 
O'Toole,  Patrick,  63 
Oxford,  51 

Paget,  Theodosia,  11,  13,  14 

in  Newport,  80 
Paris,  C.  S.  Parnell  in,  62,  73-81, 

III.  195 
Parnell  family  in,  38,  62,  74, 

113.  115 
Parliament,  Parnell  as  a  member 

of,  141.  149-153.  162,  177,  183 
Parnell  family,  the,  at  Avondale, 

3.  9-17 
Parnell,  Anna,  13,  45,  211 
Parnell,  Charles  Stewart,  appears 
after  death,  258-260 
as  a  conversationalist,  48,  125 


310       CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 


Parnell,  Charles  Stewart,    as   an 

engineer,    58,   62,    79,    92, 

147,  279 
as  leader  of  the  Irish  party, 

vii.,  131,  162,  166,  183,  189, 

213,  216,  239-252,  294-301 
as  a  member  of  Parliament, 

141,  199,  211,  227, 
as  a  militia-man,  54,  72 
as  a  mineralogist,  42,  79,  88, 

107,  258,  278-285,  293 
as  the  "  Uncrowned   King  " 

of  Ireland,  viii,  231 
at  Aughavannagh,   63,    iii, 

117 
at  Avondale,  60 
cartoon  of,  5 

contests  Dubhn,  138,  291 
decides  to  enter  pohtics,  118- 

122,  130 
deserted  by  his  party,  236- 

252 
his  aloofness  from  his  partv, 

131 

his  childhood,  11,  15,  18-46 
his  death  and  funeral,   252- 

256 
his  early  love-affairs,  24,  49, 

73-81,  116,  130 
his  education,  27-29,  34,  41, 

45.  47-53 
his  financial  affairs,   80,   88, 

94,  103,  108,  209,  286-289 
his  horror  of  the  Phoenix  Park 

murders  and  all  outrages, 

200-208,  210,  217 
his  ill-health,    181-198,    217- 

219,  226,  252,  281 
his    imprisonment,     193-198, 

292 
his  interest  in  coalfields,  88- 

95.  103,  106,  130,  148 

his  love  of  his  own  way,  25,  26 
his  love  of  sport,  31,  48,  55, 

56,  61,  117,  120,  181 
his    loyalty  to  the   Throne, 

128,  212 
his  manifesto,  294-301 
his  many  superstitions,   174, 

263-267,  273 
his  nervous  attacks,  32,   83, 

177 
his  patriotism,  x,  5,  21 
his  personal  appearance  and 

characteristics,  171-182, 281 
his  pohcy  of  obstruction,  144, 

149-153,  162,  189 


Parnell,  Charles  Stewart,  his  rela- 
tions with  the  Fenians,  70- 
72,  118,  127,  129,  145,  152, 
154,  161-163,  167,  185,  208 
his  relations  with  Gladstone, 
132,  190,  193,  202,  218,  240- 
244.  253,  295 
his  resentment  against  Eng- 
land, 122,  130,  177 
his  reserve,  viii,  29,  126,  174 
his  sawmills  at  Avondale,  62. 

See  Avondale 
his  sense  of  humour,  1 72 
his  struggle  for  Home  Rule, 

X,  142,  148,  213,  281 
in  Paris,  62,  195 
in  a  railway  accident,  96-103 
influence    of    the    American 
Civil  War  on,  55,  67,  85, 
125-127 
inherits  Avondale,  39,  59, 114, 

277,  302 
marries  Rirs.  O  'Shea,  231-233 
M.P.  for  Cork,  ix,  xi,  166 
M.P.  for  Meath,  139,  166 
organizes  the  Lamd  League, 

154,  163,  185,  191 
prosecution  of,  188 
repudiates  Pigott's  forgeries, 

221-227 
suggests  boycotting,  186 
supports   his   brother's  can- 
didature,   123,    124,    133- 
137.  258 
tributes  to,  vii-xi,  290-293 
visits  America,   77-11 1,   146, 
156-164,  268 
Parnell,  Delia,  11,21.  5ee Thomson 
Parnell,  Emily,  childhood  of,  11, 
12,  22,  30.  31,  35,  37,  43,   45. 
See  Dickinson 
Parnell,   Fanny,  as  President  of 
the  Ladies'  Land  League, 
153,  154,  163 
childhood  of,  11,  20,  34, 45,  46 
death  of,  210 
in   America,    146,    147,    154, 

160,  163 
in  Paris,  116 
patriotism  of,  13,  20,  70 
superstition  of,  116,  267 
Parnell,  Hayes,  10-12 
Parnell,  Henry  Tudor,  11,  45 

inherits  Carlow  property,  39. 

115 
Parnell,    Sir   Henry.      See    Lord 

Congleton 


INDEX 


311 


Parnell,  Sir  John,  career  of,  7,  14, 

134.  302 
Parnell,  John  Howard,  acquaint- 
ance with  Mrs.  C.  S.  Par- 
nell, 234-236 

American  experiences  of,  59, 
77-109,  146,  255,  268-276 

as  a  member  of  Parliament, 
128,  259 

at  Avondale,  59,  62,  256,  278- 
285 

attends  Land  League  meet- 
ings, 154,  160,  163.  268, 
269 

contests  Wicklow,   123,   124, 

133-137 
C.  S.  Parnell's  bedside  visits 

to,  258-260 
education  of,  29,  34,  38,  45- 

52 
entertains   C.    S.    Parnell   in 

Alabama,  77-95,  105-109 
heir  of  Sir  Ralph  Howard,  59, 

114 
in  the  Armagh  Light  Infantry, 

54.  71.  72 

inherits  Collure,  39,  59,  61, 
112,  123,  131,  303 

in  Paris,  29,  38,  u6 

interest  in  the  American  Civil 
War,  55 

inventor  of  method  of  export- 
ing frozen  fruit,  137,  147 

railway  accident  to,  96-105 

recollections  of  childhood,  18- 

53 
Parnell,  Mr.  H.,  father  of  C.  S. 

Parnell,  291 
death  of,  38 
marriage  of,  9 
Parnell,    Mrs.,    mother    of   C.    S. 

Parnell,    her   devotion    to 

the  cause  of  freedom,  69-72 
her  financial  affairs,  61,  106, 

115-117,  138 
her  loyalty  and  her  hatred  of 

England,  128 
in  America,  160,  163,  277 
in  Dublin,  32,  45,  50,  54,  62, 

70-72 
in  Paris,  38,  62,  113,  115 
on  her  son,  132,  233,  252,  255, 

281 
supports  the   Land   League, 

154,  158,  163,  269 
Parnell,  Mrs.  C.  S.,  at  Brighton, 
233-236 


Parnell,      Sophy,     34,     45.       See 

McDermott 
Parnell,  Theodosia,  45.    See  Paget 
Parnell,  Thomas,  7 
Parnell,   William,  grandfather  of 

C.  S.  Parnell,  8 
Petty,  Mr.,  157 
Philadelphia,  Davittin,  153 

Land    League    meetings    in, 

163,  208 
Parnell  in,  147 
Phoenix  Park  murders,  the,  200- 

206 
Pierce,  Dr.,  in  a  railway  accident, 

97-101 
Pigott    forgeries,    the,    200,    221- 

227 
Pilkington,  Mr.,  M.P.,  48 
Pitt,  William,  proposes  the  union 

of  Ireland,  7,  291 
Plan     of     Campaign,     O'Briens, 

216,   217,  219,    244,    266,    300, 

301 
Portarlington,  Earl  of,  8 
Powell,  Colonel,  90,  91 
Power,  O'Connor,  in  America  with 
Parnell,  145-148 
supports    Parnell   in    Parlia- 
ment, 183 
Power,  R.,  167 

Powerscourt,  Lord,  10,  48,  303 
Prisons  Bill,  the,  149 
Providence,  Rhode  Island,  163 

Quan-Smith,  Mr.,  43 
Queenstown,  in,  165,  256 

Ran,  boss,  87 

Rathdrum,  34,  35,  103,  135,  256, 
278,  280,  285,  288 

Read,  Mr.,  90 

Redmond,  John,-  as  leader  of  the 
Irish  Party,  259 
at  Aughavannagh,  63 
in  Dublin,  236 
supports  Parnell,  246,  247 

Redmond,  William,  246 

Ricketts,  Captain,  11,  12 

Robinson,  Mr.,  attorney,  108 

Roderon,  M.,  38 

Rome,  Parnell  in,  75,  76,  115 

Rossa,      O'Donovan,     editor     of 
United  Ireland,  70,  71 

Rossin,  M.,  45 

Rossina,  MdUe.,  50 

Russell,  Sir  Charles,  defends  Par- 
nell, 225,  226 


312       CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 


Savannah,  268 

Scotland  Yard,  201,  210 

Scully,  Vincent,  249 

Sexton,  Mr.,  167,  188 

Shank,  Mr.  and  Mrs  Felix,  88 

Shaw,  William,  leader  of  the  Irish 
Party,  94,  152,  166,  183 

Sheffield,  241 

She  Stoops  to  Conquer,  37 

Shooting,  Parnell's  love  of,  181 

Smith,  Catterson,  artist,  46 

Smith,  Mr.  Justice,  225 

Smithwick,  Mr.,  167 

Smyth,  Mr.,  167 

South  African  Bill,  the,  151 

South  Carolina,  278 

Spencer,  Lord,  Lord-Lieutenant 
of  Ireland,  13,  200,  207 

St.  Aldwyn,  Lord,  145 

Stepaside  police  barracks,  68 

Stewart,  Charles,  uncle  of  C.  S. 
Parnell,    38,    58,    69,    106, 
138 
in  Paris,  74-75,  iii,  115 

Stewart,  Commodore  Charles,  and 
Mrs..  8-10,  38,  43,  55,  128. 
303 

Stewart,  Delia,  marries  Mr.  Par- 
nell, 8-10,  303 

Sullivan,  A.  M.,  291 

Sullivan,  T.  D.,  in  America,  238 
joins  the  Liberals,  247 
supports  Parnell,  167.  188 

Synan,  Mr.,  167 

Tallaght,  Battle  of,  68 

Taylor,  Colonel,  M.P.  for  DubHn, 

137 
Tenant  Right  System,  the,   113, 

117,  120,  131 
Thirteen,  Parnell's  dislike  of  the 

number,  264,  267 
Thompson,  Mr.,  Mrs.,  and  Henry, 

II,  12,  38,  116,  148,  195 
Thompson,  Sir  Henry,  181,  252 
Times,    the,    on  Parnellism  and 
Crime,  221-225 
Parnell's  manifesto  in,  294- 
301 
Tipperary,  173,  300 
Toronto,  Parnell  in,  160, 161 
Trim,  Parnell  in,  139 
Trinity  College  head  rent,  113 
Truth.  236 


Twopenny,  Mrs.,  nurse,  ig,  22,  26, 
30,  32,  34.  51 

Ulster  Tenant  Right,  the,  134 
Uncrowned  King,  the,  viii,  231 
United  Ireland,  70,  249 

Valley  of  the  Seven  Churches,  the, 

62 
Victoria,  Queen,  Parnell's  loyalty 

to,  128,  129 
Virginia,  Parnell's  interest  in  the 

mines  of,  80,  88,  106,  148 

Walsh,  Martin,  40 

Warrior  Coalfield,  the,  91-94,  103, 

147,  279 
Welsh  quarries,  the,  283,  284 
West,  Charles,  agent,  36,  40 
West  Point,  Alabama,  269 

C.  S.  Parnell  visits  his  brother 
at,  77-79,  82-89,  95,  105 
Wexford,  Parnell  at,  194,  292 
Wey  bridge,  14 
Whateley,  game-keeper,  56 
Whinstone  Quarry  at  Arklow,  the, 

258,  282,  293 
Whitechapel  murders,  the,  237 
Wicklow,  coalfields  of,  284,  287 
Chemical  Manure  Works,  278 
contested  by  J.  H.  Parnell, 

124,  125,  133-137,  258 
Harbour,  293 
Parnell,  High  Sheriff  of,  122, 

133,  135,  137 
Parnell  in,  68,  73,  117,  136 

287,  290,  292 
Rifles,  the,  54,  71 
Wicklow,    Lord    and    Lady,    at 

Avondale,  3,  10 
Wigram,  Mrs.,  287,  303 
Wingfield,  Louis,  48 
Winslow,  Dr.  Forbes,  28 
Wishaw,  Rev.  Mr.,  tutor,  47-50, 

58 
Wood,     Katharine.       See     Mrs. 

O'Shea 
Woods,    Miss,    Parnell's   engage- 
ment to,  74-81,  130 
Wylde.  Lady,  quotation  from,  i 

Yeovil,  Parnell  at,  27 

Zouche,  Miss,  32,  34,  40 


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